Hello Neighbor: Into The Basement
by ThatOneThunderousMan
Summary: Jake has moved out of his old hometown and instead to a new town, and with it comes freedoms and responsibilities. But the town he has moved to isn't ordinary. The Neighbor across the street has caused terrible things to happen, and now the town has fallen into a reclusive state. Jake now has to team up with new faces and break into the Neighbor's house, and discover the truth...
1. The Neighbor Across The Street

**Before we begin, just going to say that this Hello Neighbor story is based off of another story of Hello Neighbor, on a channel on YouTube. This is a remaster of the story in new form, with new story to add on to the old one.**

**It will not fully follow the original Hello Neighbor story (and if you don't know it, try researching it yourself. It's confusing at first, but really good once you understand it!), but it will have many connections to it and will almost entirely have it integrated into this story.**

**However, this story is indeed very different. There's a reason why the protagonist is a random new guy instead of Nicky like we're all used to.**

**Why is that? Well, as the story goes on, you'll find out for yourself.**

**Enjoy the first chapter.**

* * *

It was a bright, sunny day. Clouds were absent from the clear blue sky, which was quite surprising considering it was December. Birds sat atop tree branches and sang their songs. Flowers bloomed in the fields.

Jake Anderson was driving along a straight road leading towards town ahead. To the side, a sign offered a friendly greeting into the town, saying:

_Welcome to Hortonville, Idaho_

Jake smiled as he passed by the sign, keeping a firm grip on the steering wheel as he kept approaching the town.

He had the radio on, and it buzzed with jazz music to make up for the silence. Jake turned it up a little to make the silence less apparent.

After a minute, he arrived in town. He passed by many buildings as he passed through the commercial district of Hortonville. A clock tower, several tiny shops, a gas station, a grocery store, a tiny bank, a diner...the list went on. There was even a cemetery situated on a hill off to the side of the town.

Jake made sure to keep his focus on the road, but he also made sure to take in the sights as well as he could. He was quiet fond of the town, after all.

As he drove, he saw very few people passing by on the sidewalk, and they all seemed to be walking as fast as possible, as if somebody was about to jump out at them at any possible moment. Jake passed this off; perhaps they were just in a hurry to get home or to work.

He drove over to the other side of town, the residential district. There were quite a few streets here, each lined with houses upon houses. Most of them were only one story high.

Interestingly enough, this area seemed even emptier than the commercial district. Not a soul was wandering the streets outside. While Jake felt slightly worried, he quickly disregarded it. Maybe everyone in this town just liked being at home. Besides, Jake didn't want to feel worried on a day where he was meaning to be happy.

He turned right at the street at the very right end of the district, passing the street sign as he turned.

_Sunset Avenue_

What a lovely street name. As Jake thought about it, he felt a little better about the day.

He could see the house ahead. It was on the left side of the street, in its own little area, surrounded by a wooden fence. Jake's eyes widened. It looked better than he had expected. He could also see his stuff unloaded by the front of the house, which amounted to several crates, a tv, and a blue couch.

Wanting to check it out, he pulled his car up by the fence, near where there was an opening in the fence. Ahead was a dirt walkway with bushes on either side, leading up to the porch and to the front doors. The grass was a nice shade of green, but it looked slightly more overgrown than it should.

The house itself was about one story roughly, and was yellow with a dark wooden trim, most notably on the roof. Although it was one story, he could see a window on the strangely hat-shaped gable. Did it lead to an attic of some sort?

The front doors were boarded up, most likely to keep people from just waltzing in. There was also a power box on the wall near the front doors, probably where the power was turned on.

Jake looked up at it all, and he felt the excitement build up inside of him. This was it. This was the beginning of his new life, the beginning of a new start.

It was a while ago that Jake had decided he had needed to move out. His parents had been reluctant at first, but he had been able to convince them that he was old enough to go and live his own life in his own house and take care of his own responsibilities. They eventually accepted, and Jake found himself searching the web to find a house cheap enough.

And he had been lucky enough to get this house. It had seemed good enough, and it was surprisingly cheap. Both the initial house cost and the rent was quite enough for Jake to afford. Despite this, the real estate people had advised him against buying this house, saying something about how it was located in a bad place, but Jake did it anyway. The town seemed like a good place, what could those people be worrying about?

So then he had gotten the house key and instructions from the landlord, which the landlord made Jake swear not to lose at any time. Then, after about a week or two of preparations, Jake finally packed up his stuff and, after saying some tearful goodbyes to his parents, drove to his new house with the moving van.

It had been about an hour-long drive before he had arrived in town, and his stuff was already out front due to the movers having arrived before him and having left in a hurry. Jake had seen the moving van driving back to the freeway as he had been turning his car onto the road that led to Hortonville.

Now he was here. Finally, finally here. And the key to a fresh start was just before him.

_Oh, man, this is just...awesome. That's the only word I can think of to describe this. _Jake thought, smiling. _I've arrived at my new house, and I'm ready to begin my independence. I won't need my parents anymore, I can handle myself! Though...I will miss home, still. Mom's cooking was the BEST._

Jake grinned at this. He would definitely miss his mother's food; she made the best double-chocolate cookies he had ever tasted.

Then he looked down at his clothes and features. He had light brown hair that was a little messy but otherwise neat, light blue eyes, and light skin. He was wearing a red-black long sleeved flannel jacket, a white t-shirt underneath that, ripped blue jeans, and red-white shoes. This was his favorite set of clothes, so much so that he also had three extra pairs of the very same jacket, t-shirt, and jeans inside one of the crates, among another clothes.

_I've even got on my favorite clothes to celebrate the day. Well, I wear these kinds of clothes most days, but it still feels_ great.

Jake then turned his attention to the very house before him, the one he would be living in. He liked it, that was for sure.

_And this is the house, isn't it? It really is as amazing as the pictures made it seem. With the money it cost to buy it, I half-expected it to actually be a cardboard box on the side of the road, but they weren't kidding about it actually being a house. Why was the rent so cheap, anyway? Well, maybe they really needed somebody to move in here. Perhaps those real estate people were lying about it being a bad idea to move here._

Jake then turned his attention to the crates and tv. He felt a little worried for a moment; in the time that the stuff had been left here abandoned, had anything been stolen? He ran over to one of the crates and opened it up, then breathed a sigh of relief; everything was still there.

_Phew, everything is still here. I was worried that since the movers got here before me, the stuff they left out here might have gotten stolen. I guess crime is at all an all-time low in small places like this._

Jake, wanting to get calm again, took a deep breath in and out, and silently let himself hear the slow gust of wind that was rippling through the street. As he did, he noticed that...it was indeed eerily quiet. He had thought it might have just been quiet because he was in his car, but it was really noiseless around here. Jake turned and looked up and down the street: houses were of course lining both sides of the road, but nobody seemed to be outside at all. No neighbors watering the grass, no children playing in their yards, nothing. The grass in these houses were slightly unkempt and in some cases overgrown.

Odd. Were the neighbors too lazy to take care of their own yards?

Jake kept turning around, and his eyes widened as he observed the house directly across the street from him.

It was the only house on the entire street that looked as if somebody actually lived in it and took care of their house. The front yard was much neater than another other yard, with grass so evenly trimmed that it seemed as if every blade had been carefully made the same length. A lawnmower sat casually in the yard as well, probably having been recently used. There was also a big fence surrounding the house, like with Jake's, as well as a dirt path leading up to the porch, albeit without the big bushes.

The house itself was there, too. It was two stories high instead of one, which made it clear that whoever lived it in was one of the more lucky people on the street. This one was blue with a more light wood trim, with the roof a more reddish color. The front porch was a bit roomier than the porch for Jake's house, and it even had a patio cover over the terrace, while Jake's porch relied on the roof to cover it.

_Wow. _Jake thought, amazed by the quality of the house. _That house is the nicest-looking house I've seen in this neighborhood so far. Whoever was fortunate enough to live there must be pretty lucky. Why did he leave his lawnmower out in his yard, though? Wouldn't somebody steal it? Then again, the other neighbors all seem to be pretty reclusive, so...perhaps that explains it._

Jake snapped himself out of this, too. He had work to do if he wanted to finally explore his new home.

Firstly, he patted his left pocket. He felt something in there, which was good. That meant he still had the house key.

Then he patted his right pocket, and suddenly felt a little panicked. He didn't feel anything inside. That wasn't good, because the instruction book from the landlord had been in there. Now where was it?

Jake, realizing he would need to follow the instructions from memory, did so at once. He forgot about his stuff sitting by the yard for a moment, because he would only be able to move that stuff inside once his house was open. He had already gotten to his house and his stuff was already unpacked, so now...he needed to get the door open.

He walked up the dirt path to his front porch, stepping up the short steps to the front door. The barricades were nailed into place, but Jake noticed that they were kind of loose. This gave him an idea.

He grabbed one of the wooden barricades and tugged as hard as he could, until the sloppily hammered-in nails finally gave way and the board flew off the door. Jake did the same with each other board, until finally every one was removed. He set the barricades on the floor of the porch. He'd find a place for them later.

_Wow, those barricades were surprisingly easy to remove._ Jake thought. _Guess whoever hammered them in didn't try to do a very good job. Well, I do go to the gym sometimes, so maybe that's why it's easy. Anyways, moving on..._

Before he could take his house key and unlock the door, he'd need to turn on the power for the house, so he would have electricity, water, and gas. He noted the power box near the doors and went up to it. There was a tiny little door here he'd need to open to access the power control. He fiddled with the little door for a moment until he pulled it open, revealing the switch inside, facing down to indicate power off. Jake grabbed it and pulled it upwards, to power on.

Nothing else happened, but Jake knew nothing else would. The lights wouldn't turn on until Jake went in there and used the light switches in the rooms, but at least they would turn on for sure.

_Alright, the power's on. _Jake noted. _Now I can finally enter my house. Just gotta unlock the front door._

Jake reached into his left pocket and took out the silver key that would open up his house. Jake grinned, getting excited by it. He was so close now.

He walked back to the doors and inspected it for a moment, searching for the keyhole. Finally, he spotted it underneath the handle of the right door. He inserted the key into said look and turned it sideways. The click that followed signaled that the door was unlocked.

Jake, grinning all the way, put the key back into his pocket and slowly, his hand quivering with excitement, reached for the handle. After what seemed like ages, he finally got a grip on the handle. Then he slowly bur surely pulled it down, then pushed the doors open.

And at last, he entered his house, stepping into the foyer. It was dark, since the lights had still not been fully activated. Jake scanned the wall until he saw a light switch, then flicked it, finally letting him see into the room.

The room was without furniture, of course, since Jake had only just gotten into the house. The ceiling was a plain white color, the flooring was nice blue carpet, and the walls a cheery red. There was a large doorway to Jake's left, and some more doors, one straight ahead and one to the right.

Jake carefully debated where he should start in his house tour, then decided to go right. He went through the right door, turning on the lights as he entered.

This led what was clearly a bathroom, with a shiny white marble flooring instead of carpet flooring. There wasn't much here either, but it still had some furniture. There was sink with a small mirror, as well as a toilet with a toilet paper holder on the wall next to it. There was also a shower, separated from the rest of the room by a blurry green glass wall, and even a door. Jake opened the door and peeked into the shower. It was pretty empty except for the shower head, the drain below it, and the knob that turned it on, but it did have an empty rack on the nearby wall. Jake knew he'd need to buy some shower products from the grocery store later on so he could put something on that rack. There was also, weirdly enough, a window here, that looked out onto the front porch and yard, but thankfully there were at least some curtains here to block the view of the outside world.

_This bathroom's pretty nice, though it could use some improvements. _Jake thought. _Still pretty good, though. Makes me wonder why the house was so cheap if the bathroom's nice enough to use._

Jake exited the bathroom and headed across to the big doorway to the left of the foyer, with nice again flicking the light switch as he came in.

Here was the living room, with black-colored walls instead of red, though it was even less furnished than the bathroom. There was a random dresser sitting in the middle of the room, and a sink without a faucet placed by another window that looked out at the front yard. There was also a window peering out into what Jake assumed would most likely be the backyard, which Jake decided he'd check out later. There was also a set of stairs here, which led upstairs to the attic.

_Huh. This living room is pretty empty. Guess it'll be up to me to get it decked out in furniture. I'll have to spend time moving stuff in here later today._

Jake left the living room and went through the final door in the foyer area, which was straight ahead. He again used the light switch.

It was a bedroom in here, with dark blue walls, though this place was also empty and mostly without furniture. There was a single window peering out into the backyard. The only thing in here was Jake's bed, which had been placed on the far wall. Jake felt glad it was here; before the movers had started the drive to the new house, Jake had specifically told them to move his bed inside before leaving. Thank goodness they actually did so.

_Phew, they actually got the bed in here. __At least it'll save me the trouble of having to get it in myself, as well as having to wait until later to go to sleep. Guess I should thank myself for being smart enough to ask the movers to do that._

Jake left the bedroom, satisfied with his tour, and walked back out onto the front porch, observing the street before him. Everything was great. He still had to move everything inside, but he could handle that later. Although...Jake found himself trying to remember what other steps there were in that instruction book. He knew he had done most of the stuff he had to do, but he could've sworn there was one more thing...

_What else did the landlord tell me to do? _Jake thought, trying hard to bring back the picture of the instruction book and what had been written inside of it. _What was it that I needed to do before my job is complete? Hmm...I think it had to be...ah-ha, I think I remember! I think the landlord wrote that I had to visit the neighbor after unlocking and looking around my house. Yeah, that must've been it. I'd better go do that right now._

Jake looked up and down the street, trying to think over which house he'd need to go to. _Hmm...the other houses are a bit further away...there is that one house across the street. Since it's the closest, it has to be, by process of elimination, the house I need to go to._

He walked off his porch and down the dirt path again, heading onto the sidewalk. He made sure to look both ways before crossing the street, though there wasn't a single car driving by. Then he walked up the path to the front porch of the neighbor's house, right up to the double doors that led inside. There was a plain brown doormat here, too, and it added to the aesthetic of the porch.

Jake wondered how he was going to approach this, now that he had just come up to the door. He looked around the doors for some sort of doorbell, but there wasn't one there. Instead, he opted to knock on the door and get the neighbor's attention that way.

He reached out and knocked on the doors once. He went for a second knock, but the doors slid open before he could, allowing him entrance inside.

_Oh, uh...it's unlocked. _Jake thought. _Well, I guess I should just go on inside. I hope the neighbor won't mind if I do. Hopefully he's a pretty nice person. If he's as friendly as Mr. Rodgers, then I should be just fine. We'll probably hit it off and be best friends by the time my visit is over._

Smiling at the thought, Jake entered the house, stepping into the foyer. This house has light blue carpeting for flooring, dark blue walls (at least in this room), and a white ceiling. There was a door to the far right and a hallway ahead. Not much was in here besides a small closet to the right and a golden birdcage sitting on a table in the left corner. A little yellow bird was in there, tittering softly and staring at the floor of the cage.

_A bird! Aw, how cute._ Jake thought, smiling. He approached the little bird. "Hello, little birdy! How are you today?"

The little bird looked up at Jake and tweeted, looking a bit happy, but then it stopped tweeting and it went silent, looking sad.

_Oh. It's sad. I guess maybe the neighbor forgot to feed him? No, that couldn't be it. Why would the bird be sad?_

Jake looked at the bird sympathetically before turning away. The door to the right was the closest, and Jake had seen a window at the front of the house earlier that peered into the room past this door, so Jake decided to head there first. Maybe the neighbor was watching tv and was too distracted to notice anybody coming in.

He went through the door. This was the neighbor's living room, and it looked much more complete than Jake's. There was a small tv similar to Jake's sitting on a small table, a coffee table in front of that, and an blue armchair next to a tall green lamp. There was another closet in here, too, as well as a blue-yellow checkered carpet, a large white shelving unit on the wall opposite from the closet, and another armchair, this one red, in a corner. Jake saw the window from earlier, peering out into the front yard.

_Wow, this living room is a lot better than mine. And it's actually furnished this time. _Jake noted. _That tv looks kinda like mine. Speaking of a tv, I really need to move all my stuff inside later on. Without tv, what am I gonna do all day long?_ Jake looked at the shelving unit. It didn't even have anything on any of it shelves. _It's empty? The neighbor should really put something on those shelves, or else why would the shelving unit even be there? _

Jake kept looking around until he spotted something that caught his interest. There was a door on the wall opposite from the window, but unlike a regular wooden door, this one was made out of steel. It was covered in boards, and there was a keyhole underneath the handle that suggested it was locked, too.

_A random blocked-off door? That doesn't even make any sense. Why would the neighbor block off one of his rooms? What's the point of making it inaccessible? Eh, maybe it's a personal reason. I'll ask him when I see him._

He saw another doorway to the left of the closet, so he went through it, and into what seemed to be the kitchen. Instead of blue, the walls were black colored. There was another window that looked out onto the front yard, and at that very same wall was a kitchen area with a countertop stretching from the left to right walls, which had sinks, a toaster with an empty plate next to it, ready to carry food, and some cabinets above. There was also a dark wooden table in here with four chairs, two on either side. This was next to an oven. There was also a broom closet next to the kitchen area, and a painting on the wall near that.

_This kitchen is pretty nice, not gonna lie. _Jake thought, impressed. _I don't even have a kitchen area in my own house. Guess I've got order kitchen stuff and get it into my house so I have somewhere to make food._

Jake saw a hallway to the right and went down it. There was another closet at the end of it that blended in with the wall, and a door to the right. Jake opened it up and went in, revealing a bathroom, with, like most of the previous rooms, blue walls. There was a toilet, a toilet paper holder, and a sink with a mirror, like in Jake's bathroom, but the shower in here was the most notable thing. It took up pretty much half of the room, with a light blue glass wall and door instead of a green one, and a spacious interior that gave the person showering lots of room to move around. It even had things that Jake's bathroom didn't have, like a couple of towel racks and a rack with a soap bar as well.

_Oh. My. God. His bathroom is probably the nicest bathroom I've ever seen in my life. I thought my bathroom was nice, but this is just...amazing. His shower is so much bigger, too! And it even has stuff I don't have! Man, this is really making me start to reconsider calling my bathroom 'nice'..._

Jake observed this all in awe for a minute, before snapping out of it and turning around, heading back the way he came until he was back at the foyer. This time he took the hall ahead, heading along it. It had sea-blue walls that looked very beautiful, as well as assorted paintings lining said walls. Up ahead was a doorway to the left, and the hall turned at the right and continued on.

Seeing all this, and how nice the house was and how much better it was compared to his own, Jake decided his sneaking around had gotten old. The neighbor had to be nearby, right? Jake decided to call out for him and see if he was nearby.

"Hey! Neighbor!" Jake called. "Hello! Are you in here?"

"What's that?!" Somebody said, and from the doorway to the left came a man that Jake assumed must be the neighbor living in this very house. He was taller than Jake was and was a bit more muscular too. The neighbor had brown hair and eyebrows, a reddish nose, a curly waxed mustache, and green eyes. He wore a blue and light blue diamond-patterned sleeveless sweater vest over a yellow shirt with the sleeves rolled up, long black rubber gardening gloves, red-orange striped pants, and black shoes with white caps and shoelaces.

The neighbor's eyes widened and he gasped as he saw Jake standing there. Then his surprise turned to anger as his expression filled with rage. "Hey! What do you think you're doing here?!" He yelled. "I've already told you townspeople once, and I'll tell you again: STAY OUT!"

"Uh, hi!" Jake greeted, trying to act casual. "I'm your new neighbor, in that house across the street. My name is-"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOUR NAME IS!" The neighbor bellowed as he stomped towards Jake, who backed away. "You'd better turn around and leave right now, or there will be very serious consequences!"

"Calm down! I'm just here visiting, that's all! My instruction guide told me to come and visit you!"

Jake backed away from the neighbor, though instead of backing up towards the door, he turned and backed into the living room instead. The neighbor continued to stomp towards Jake, getting angrier and angrier as time went on.

"I. DON'T. CARE! You're not supposed to come in here, ever, and that's up to me, not some book! Now get out of here!" The neighbor demanded, pointing to the door.

"I didn't know that!" Jake exclaimed, afraid. "Your door was unlocked! I just assumed I could come in!"

"Unlocked? Well, then I'm never leaving it open again! Anyway, you'd better-" The neighbor paused, eyeing Jake for a moment, then his expression changed, offering a hint of a smile. "So, you've just moved in on this street, haven't you, boy? Well then, it's best you know what you're in for."

The neighbor reached forward and grabbed Jake's collar, lifting him into the air. Jake struggled and tried to wiggle free, but the neighbor has an iron grip, and escape was impossible at this point.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" Jake plead desperately.

The neighbor stared Jake down, his expression heading back to anger. "It's too late for apologies, you brat. There's just one thing that you should know, one thing that is fundamental to living in this place: don't disturb me, and never, ever, COME IN MY HOUSE!"

The neighbor raised his fist, clenching it as he prepared to deal a heavy blow. "Now...STAY OUT!"

Jake tried to scream, but he barely got a second to do so before the Neighbor's first connected with his face with the force comparable to a brick, and in a moment, before Jake could even realize it, he was out like a light.

* * *

He came to sometime later. Jake woke up with a gasp as he sat up, finding himself on his bed, back in his bedroom.

"AAH! DON'T HURT ME!" Jake said, but then realized everything was alright. _Oh. I'm home, in my bed. But what am I doing here? I...I was over at the neighbor's house, wasn't I? _He paused for a moment, closing his eyes as he regained his senses, before continuing. _Was that all a dream? It...yeah, it must've been. It's not like me at all to just waltz into a random person's house. And why did I turn into the living room instead of running for the door? That's just so horror-movie-cliché style that it had to have just been a dream._

Jake slid off of the bed and set his feet on the floor. He felt a little dizzy. He groaned as he clutched his head for a moment, trying to get the dizziness to go away, before heading to the room door. He opened it and came into the foyer, than opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch again. His stuff was still out front, as well as his car. Everything seemed normal.

He eyed the neighbor's house, still there across the street. It looked the same as in the dream.

_There's the house. _Jake thought. _If I didn't visit the neighbor before, then it's time I go visit him for real this time. He has to be a good neighbor, surely, he wouldn't be a bad guy. That just sounds...wrong. _

Jake made to start towards the house, but he was stopped by a rustling noises coming from somewhere around him. Jake whirled around, expecting to see something behind him, but nobody was there.

"Huh?" Jake mumbled. "What was that?"

"Pssst." A voice suddenly whispered, causing Jake to jump.

"Woah! Who said that?"

"Hey. You there. Down here."

"Down where?"

"Over there."

"Over there? Where, though?"

"The bush. Look to the bush."

Jake turned and looked at the bush to his right. "Oh, hey! Are you here?"

"No, no, the other bush. Turn around."

Jake turned around to look at the other bush, and he jumped again. There was somebody, a man presumably, hiding inside the bush, peering out at Jake.

"Oh, there!" Jake exclaimed. "Uh, hey there, stranger. Any reason why you're hiding inside my bush?"

"It's a good hiding place." The man answered. "A good spot to spy out, you know. To keep watch on...him."

"Him?"

"The neighbor across the street. You went to his house earlier, remember?"

"What?! That...that actually happened? I actually went into the neighbor's house earlier? But it seemed like a weird dream!"

"No, it definitely happened. I saw the whole thing go down from inside here."

Jake was shocked, he really was. After he had woken up in his bed, he had just assumed that him going into his neighbor's house had just been nothing more than a dream, a harmless nightmare that had no effect on his life. But now he was being told otherwise, and...it was just such a horrible feeling to realize everything that had happened actually happened. What was he supposed to think? What was he supposed to do?

"So, let me get this straight." Jake began. "I stupidly walked over and into my neighbor's house, got caught, and then knocked unconscious."

"Yes."

"Then the neighbor carried me all the way back to my house and put me on my bed while I was out cold."

"Correct."

"But how did he get in, though? I thought the front door was locked...wasn't it?"

"You could've accidentally left the door unlocked, probably. And even if it was, that neighbor could and would be able to find another way in. I'm honestly not sure which of the two is what happened."

"Yeah, I must have forgotten to lock it. I'd better not forget next time around- hey, wait a second!"

"What?"

"You said you were hiding in this bush and watching the whole thing happen as it happened, right?"

"Um, yes?"

"Then why didn't you help me?! You probably could've rescued me before I got myself knocked out, or at least tried to free me from the neighbor's grasp!"

"I...well...it's a long story. Let me come out of the bush first."

"Yes, please. I'd prefer it if we could talk face-to-face instead of me having to look down at a bush."

"Got it."

The man climbed out of the bush, grunting as he freed himself from the foliage and got to his feet. The bush had masked the man's features, but now that he was out of it, Jake finally got a better look at him. He seemed to be a pretty average guy. He had dark, messy brown hair whose quality made it clear it had never met a comb, dark green eyes with a focused look to them, light skin similar to Jake's, and a five-o-clock shadow as well. He was wearing a red, green, and white checkered flannel jacket with sleeves shorter than Jake's. Underneath, he had on a green shirt with a picture of a red-yellow tennis racket on it. He had plain gray pants and dark yellow shoes, as well as a purple watch around his left wrist.

"Hey, thanks for finally joining me on land." Jake joked. "Next time, find a better place to hide, will you?"

"Aw, come on." The man laughed, grinning slightly. "That bush was a perfect hiding place. Nothing else could be better."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Also, before we go anywhere, I need to know I can trust you. I mean, that neighbor is pretty weird. You're not anymore weird than he is, right? Are you trying to gain my trust and then trick me?"

"No, I promise I'm not. I have no reason to be against you and every reason to be against the neighbor. Anyway, we should continue this conversation inside. We don't want him hearing us."

"Uh, alright."

Jake led the man up to his porch and through the doors, heading back into his house. The man eyed the foyer carefully but made no comment about it. Jake led him into the living room, which he felt was a good place to talk.

"Where's all the furniture?" The man asked.

"I haven't moved in my stuff yet." Jake replied. "Still gotta do that sometime. Well, since there's no chairs, then...are you fine with sitting on the floor?"

"Eh, it's not preferable, but it works."

They both sat down on the carpet flooring, getting themselves into comfortable positions, before continuing their chat.

"Before we begin, I think I need to know what your name is." Jake said. "What IS your name?"

"Oh, my name?" The man replied. "I'm Jeffrey, Jeffrey Stewart. What about you?"

"I'm Jake. Jake Anderson."

"Nice to meet you, Jake."

"You too. So, tell me...what's the deal with this neighbor guy?"

"Yes, that. Well, it's a long story..."

"Go ahead and explain. We've got time."

"Alright, then. Now, where to start...I know."

Jake sat up a little straighter, listening as well as he could as Jeffrey began his story.

"A long time ago, things were very different from how they are now." Jeffrey started. "Hortonville was the happiest little town I've ever seen, and I got the pleasure of living in it before you came along today. The residents enjoyed life, and were happy, and everything was good. We were all very social, since the town didn't have a ginormous population, so to say. The residents liked to come out and chat with each other about their daily lives and what else to do around town and such.

"Then, one day, HE came along. The man you saw, living across the street. When he moved in to Sunset Avenue, nobody knew a thing about him. Nobody knew who he was, where he came from, why he was here, or even what his name was. To everybody living here, he's just 'The Neighbor'.

"At first, everyone was fine with him being there. He generally kept to himself and was never bothered to interact with other townspeople or be social in any way, shape, or form. Live and let live, so to say. But over time, everybody here got a bit bothered by him. They heard noises inside his house, of him yelling, crying, having conversations with somebody that wasn't there, making a ruckus, all that. It went on like that for a little while before anything changed.

"One day, somebody around our age decided it was time to find out what was up with the neighbor. They sneaked into the house to discover what was making him disrupt the peace of the street. Everyone else living on the street watched the house from afar, standing at their porches with baited breath as they waited for the person to come back out and share what he had found. They too were curious about this neighbor.

"Unfortunately, he didn't come out. All that was heard next was a bloodcurdling, bone-chilling coming from the neighbor's house. The person's scream. Then, what happened next changed everything. The neighbor, he came out of his house, without the person in tow. He was angrier than anybody had ever seen him. He made a loud threat to the street: if they were ever to come out and disturb him, or to break into his house, ever again, then they would meet the same fate as the person who snuck in there to begin with. Then he went back into his house, slamming the door behind him.

"The residents, at first, passed this off as an empty threat, despite their fears over the loss of the person who was kidnapped in the neighbor's house. Some actually went and hid inside their homes, fearing for their lives. Both kinds of people had one thing in common, though, and that was that they weren't sure whether or not the neighbor was actually a threat. They had no idea that they were underestimating him. That neighbor was capable of more than anyone ever expected.

"See, a few people were so spooked that they tried getting law enforcement to handle it. When night had fallen, and everyone had gone to sleep, they tried calling the police. They all failed, for each one of them disappeared, presumably kidnapped, before they were even able to finish dialing nine-one-one.

"That sent a message to the residents of the town, and it was clear: step out of line, and they would be next. After that, the residents took the neighbor's threat to heart, and they all started an isolated lifestyle, where they spent most of their time in their homes, doors locked up tight. If they had to leave, say to the grocery store, they would do it quickly and quietly.

"The residents on the streets beyond Sunset Avenue also heard of this, and they too began an isolated lifestyle, although they still came outside more often. The people on those streets weren't in as much danger as the people here on this street, but they still had to be careful.

"And the neighbor, he always checks. Every day, whether in his house or outside, he always listens very carefully, and he keeps a close eye on people he finds suspicious. One step out of line, and BAM, they're kidnapped before anyone can realize what's going on. A few people have already gone missing that way.

"Now, this house that you now own used to belong to somebody else. It was an elderly woman who lived alone, she was the one who lived here before you. After the neighbor made his presence known and made clear how dangerous he was, the woman was more afraid than anybody else. She quickly packed up her things and moved away before the neighbor could do anything. After that, nobody else moved out. They were all too afraid of getting kidnapped to try and escape.

"All these people that have gone missing went COMPLETELY missing. There's barely a trace left of them now. Nobody really truly knows where there are, and whether or not they're even still alive. I've hanged out with the other people on the street before, and they've been making lots of theories on where the people could be, but nothing is for certain.

"Speaking of me, I've been living on this street since The Neighbor came. I heard about what was going on, and I started investigating The Neighbor, to see what he was truly up to. I hid in the bush, where The Neighbor had no idea I was watching him, and observed his lifestyle. Now I've got at least AN IDEA of what his daily routine is.

"And today I saw you go into the house. You asked if I would've helped you, and to be honest, normally I would've, since you're new here and I didn't want you to disappear so soon. But I had to make sure of where the neighbor was, 'cause I wasn't sure whether he was in his house or whether he was on the streets or in town somewhere.

"And, that's basically it." Jeffrey finished, sighing as he did. "That's the whole story. I've been trying to find out what The Neighbor's been doing ever since."

Jake was flabbergasted, completely blindsided, by this story. The Neighbor had been a kidnapper all along? Now Jake felt lucky he was still alive and in his own house, instead of being trapped in the Neighbor's house.

"Wow. That's...heartbreaking." Jake murmured. "And to think I went in that guy's house. How did I not get kidnapped?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure why he didn't just kidnap you like he did with all those other people." Jeffrey sighed. "I still don't fully understand what his true intentions are, to be honest. Only he knows why he didn't just kidnap you."

"That's true, that's true. And I swore that my instruction book told me to go and visit him. I must've read it wrong or something, I dunno. Too bad I had to go and lose it earlier..."

Jeffrey perked up as he heard this. "Instruction book? Wait, did it happen to be a brown-colored journal, by any chance?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what it looks like. The landlord gave it to me before I moved here. How did you know-"

Jeffrey fished into his pocket and pulled put a brown journal, just as he had described. Jake gasped as he saw it there. It was the instruction book.

"Is this it?" Jeffrey asked.

"Yeah, it is!" Jake exclaimed, taking the book from Jeffrey and observing it to make sure. Sure enough, it was the same journal. "How on earth did you find it?"

"I just saw it on the ground earlier and picked it up."

"It was on the ground? Dang, so it must have fallen out of my pocket after I stepped out of my car."

"I guess so. What are you gonna do with it?"

"I think I'll look inside of it. I need to find out what the landlord actually wrote in it."

Jake opened up the small book and peered at what the landlord had written inside of it.

_Jake,_

_Here's what you need to do once you start the drive to your new house. Follow these instructions carefully, and everything will be fine._

_1: Make sure to arrive at the house, first of all. There's no garage, so just park your car by the fence.  
__2: Unpack your stuff after that, and do it quietly. You don't want to disturb anybody.  
__3: Remove the boards stuck to the door. You can't get inside until they're gone.  
__4: Before you go in, turn on the power. The switch is in the little box on the wall near the door.  
__5: Move everything inside. Set it all up wherever you like or don't bother to open up the crates at all, I don't care. Just get everything inside._

_And, most importantly, DO NOT talk to the neighbor across the street! He's a dangerous man and should be avoided at all costs if you want to keep yourself safe. Never ever make a lot of noise outside, and never ever go into his house._

"Do not talk to the neighbor..." Jake repeated out loud, wide-eyed as he stared down at that one single line. So it was true after all. "So I really wasn't supposed to go visit him. That's pretty specific. I wonder how the landlord knew what the neighbor was like."

"The landlord lives in Hortonville too, I think." Jeffrey answered. "He knows as well. He doesn't tell anybody else, though, besides other people in this town. And when it comes to the real estate agents, I've heard he's pretty vague. He just says that Hortonville is in a 'bad place' and doesn't elaborate beyond that."

"He does? Wow. So, about the neighbor. You said you've been watching him?"

"Yep."

"For how long, though?"

"Eh, the line is a bit blurred. I might've been at it for a day. Maybe two days. Maybe a week. Might've even been a month. I lost track after I started watching him. I kept forgetting to check my calendar and see. I was out in that bush for quite some time."

Jake, feeling odd by this, suddenly had an idea. He sniffed Jeffrey for a moment...and gagged as he promptly smelled something beyond putrid. His suspicions were true.

"Woo, my god!" Jake groaned. "Jeffrey, you smell terrible! Have you even taken a shower recently?"

"Nope, was too distracted to think about taking a shower. Besides, nature's all the deodorant I need."

"Well, then you've got to take a shower. Soon, anyway."

"Maybe."

"So, about that neighbor...what do you plan to do to find out what he's hiding from everybody?"

"The one thing that the first person who disappeared did: sneak into his house and find out what secrets there are that he's not revealing to the rest of the town."

"Huh? But-"

"Yes, I know how it is, but I can't find out where those missing people are by being fearful like everybody else is. I've got to go in there and find out for myself if I want to fix this mess he's created. And, to do that...I need your help. I can't break into his house all by myself. I need somebody who's not afraid to help me break in there."

"WHAT?! No, no way! It's way too dangerous over there!"

"It's worth the risk."

"But if he catches us again, we might not be so lucky as the first time! What if he actually kidnaps us for real?!"

"Look, I've got a plan, so hopefully he won't be able to catch us. Besides, there's two of us. He can't possibly focus on both of us at once. If he grabs you, I can...run for help."

"Are you sure you'd get help? Or would you just escape and leave me to DIE?!"

"No, no way in heck! I'll help you, I swear I will. That is, if you're willing to help me. What do you say?"

"I...I..."

"Come on. Please?"

Jake paused, trying to weigh his options. He didn't want to put himself in harm's way anymore, and he wanted to be safe and away from the dangerous neighbor across the street. But he also was deeply curious about what was going on inside that house. What could The Neighbor possibly be hiding?

He thought it over. Then he thought it over some more. He scratched his head as he debated it. Then he sighed as he finally came to a decision.

"...Fine, I'll do it. But only because I'm actually pretty curious about what that guy's hiding myself."

"YES!" Jeffrey cheered, fist-pumping the air in celebration. "Thank you so much, Jake! I promise you won't regret it!"

"Yeah, yeah." Jake said, but he couldn't help but smile at Jeffrey's enthusiasm. "So, where do we start?"

"Well, before we begin...I haven't got much of a look at your house. What's it like now that you're living in it?"

"Eh, it isn't much. I still haven't moved my stuff in here, so right now it's pretty empty. There's a random dresser and sink in here, as you can see."

Jeffrey looked around and started at those two things for a moment, then looked back at Jake. "Oh..."

"The bathroom's got a lot of stuff in it, thankfully, and my bed is in the bedroom, but other than that it's pretty much empty. Although there is one room I haven't looked at yet."

"What's that?"

Jake pointed at the set of stairs nearby. "That. The upstairs area. I think it leads to the attic, but I'm not sure yet."

"Let's take a look, then."

They both stood up. Jake walked to the stairs, eyeing them for a moment, then began to ascend them. They made creaking noises as his feet went.

At the top of the stairs, there was a door blocking the way into the room beyond it. Jake grabbed the knob and tried to turn it, but it barely moved. Jake then saw another keyhole on this door, and groaned deeply. Of course this one was locked too.

"Hey, what's up there?" Jeffrey called from downstairs.

"I can't get up there." Jake answered, quickly descending the stairs and heading back over to Jeffrey. "The door's locked, and I don't have the key for it."

"It's locked? You weren't given a key or anything to open it?"

"I was given a key for the front door-" Jake patted the pocket that held said key. "-but not a key for the attic. The landlord must have forgotten to give it to me. I'll have to call him up later and ask for it."

"You have a phone?"

"Yep." Jake patted the back pocket of his jeans, where his phone was sitting safely inside.

"That's cool. Now, it's time we begin thinking of how we're going to get into the neighbor's house. We should get a view of the house first."

"The window over there will be good." Jake pointed at the window that looked out to the front yard and beyond. Jeffrey nodded, and they both went over to the window and looked through it, over to the neighbor's house at the other side of the street. "So, what's the plan? Seeing as you've been watching this guy for a while, you should know what he's going to do right about this time."

"Well, we can't risk going in there while he's still there." Jeffrey explained. "It's better if we sneak in when he isn't home. Once we do, we can quickly search the house for any secrets."

"Sounds good, but the neighbor's still in his house right now. Do you know if he'll leave soon?"

"I need to do something for that. Hold on." Jeffrey quickly glanced down at his watch and checked the time, then looked back at Jake. "Okay, I got it now. Lucky for us, we happened to be planning at the right time. According to the time, he should be going for his afternoon run through the district in about ten seconds."

"Got it. Let's wait."

They fell silent and stood there, watching the house and waiting for the neighbor to leave. After a short amount of time, they saw the front door of the house open, and the neighbor came out, closing the door behind him. Jake opened the window a tiny bit so he could hear what the neighbor was saying.

The neighbor sighed as he strolled onto the sidewalk. "Hmph, this day isn't half-bad. Hopefully that'll help, and maybe this time my afternoon run will help me take my mind off that kid breaking in earlier. Ugh, guess I've got to see. Here we go." The Neighbor turned to his right and ran off down the street, disappearing around the street corner and going out of sight.

Jake and Jeffrey nodded to each other, then ran to the foyer and out onto the front porch, closing the front door behind them.

"Alright, let's do this." Jake said excitedly. "Time to get in there. By the way, that neighbor seems pretty tough. I mean, he runs, and when I saw him earlier, he did look a bit more toned than I do."

"Yeah, he's not to be messed with." Jeffrey added. "That guy is capable of more than he looks like he can do at first glance."

"Then we'd better tread lightly. Come on, let's go." They began running across the street, heading towards the neighbor's house. "Jeffrey, how much time do we have?"

Jeffrey checked his watch again as they ran. "About five minutes. Could be more, could be less, but it's most likely that."

"Five minutes?! I was expecting us to have a lot longer than that!"

"No, it actually makes sense. That guy is really, really fast, trust me. He'll be back here before we even know it."

"Dang, we really do need to check the house quickly! Let's make this count, then."

They ran up to the front porch and Jake grabbed the handle. Thankfully, the Neighbor had forgotten to lock it. He opened it and they stepped into the foyer. Jeffrey carefully closed the front door so it looked as if nobody had came in before turning back to Jake, who suddenly exclaimed in the midst of a revelation.

"I think I know where we can start!" Jake said, and he led Jeffrey into the nearby living room and over to the blocked metal door he had seen earlier. "When I came in here earlier, I saw this door! It seems like a pretty suspicious place to hide people, right?"

"Oh, this door. So you saw it earlier." Jeffrey responded, gazing at the door.

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, I know about this door. I've been watching the neighbor go down there, and it seems to be some sort of basement. Me and the other residents always thought that the Neighbor might be keeping one of, or even all of, the missing people down here."

"It does seem pretty suspicious. Can we open it?"

"I mean, I've never gotten the chance to try tugging off the boards before, so I guess I'll give it a shot." Jeffrey grabbed one of the boards and tried pulling it off, but these boards had been hammered into place with actual care and force, meaning it would take more than bare hands to pull it open. "Drat, the boards here are pretty strong. We're going to need some type of tool if we want to get them off."

"Fine, we'll leave it until we find a tool to open it. Let's keep looking around, though, because there might be other suspicious places in here."

They went into the nearby kitchen and began looking around for some kind of door or compartment, but found nothing. They went into the hall next to the kitchen to keep looking. Jake opened up the hall closet as Jeffrey peered into the bathroom.

"Nothing in here." Jake commented as he opened the closet and found it empty, devoid of any material items. "What about you?"

"Nope, doesn't seem like anything's hidden in here." Jeffrey answered. "It's a nice bathroom, though. That shower is just...wow. You could probably fit an entire family in that shower."

"I know, right? It's a sight to behold."

They gave up searching over here and backtracked until the came back into the living room.

"Redouble your search efforts here." Jeffrey ordered as they began searching again. "He had the basement door in here, there might be other things too. We've just gotta look for them."

They looked in every nook and cranny around the room. As Jeffrey checked around the armchair, prodding it and shifting it around expectingly, Jake inspected the shelving unit. Now that he looked closer, he was sure there really wasn't anything on these shelves...until he looked underneath it. Underneath the shelving unit, he could see something shiny sitting there. He grabbed it and pulled it out, standing up and bringing the item to his face to get a closer look. He gasped as he realized what it was.

"Hey, Jeffrey!" Jake called excitedly. "I found something!"

"Really? What?" Jeffrey exclaimed, coming over to see what Jake had. "Woah, it's a key!"

Jake had indeed found a key. It was a shiny grey-colored key, about the size of Jake's front door key. He compared the two for a moment to confirm this, and it was true.

"Alright, this is a good find!" Jake said. "This might open a locked door somewhere around here."

"Good job, Jake. Good job." Jeffrey commended him. "Also, before we continue, I need to ask you something."

"What?"

"See, I have a phone too, and I meant to give you my number earlier. Can we do that now so we can call each other when we're not with each other?"

"That's fine. Here, let me-" Jake reached into his back pocket and took out his cell phone. He pressed the _on _button and waited for the screen to light up, but instead a colorless battery symbol momentarily appeared on the blank screen before disappearing. Jake groaned, knowing what this meant.

"Huh? Jake, what's the holdup?" Jeffrey asked, confused.

"There's a problem."

"Problem? What problem?"

"My phone is out of battery. I forgot to charge it."

"Dang! Don't you have a charger or something?"

"Yeah, but it's back with the rest of my stuff."

"Then we'll have to get to giving each other our numbers later. And-" Jeffrey gasped. "Oh, no! We're wasting time!"

"We are?" Jake stuttered, before coming to the same realization. "We are! Quick, tell me what time it is!"

Jeffrey glanced at his watch, and he suddenly looked taken aback. "He's...he's going to be home in five seconds!"

"FIVE SECONDS?!"

"Yes, he's-"

They were interrupted from their panicked chat by a sudden noise: footsteps on a dirt road outside. The Neighbor had come home.

"And done. Phew." The Neighbor grumbled, wiping sweat off of his forehead. "Didn't make me forget about that stupid kid, but it does feel good to get exercise, if nothing else..."

Jake and Jeffrey gave each other panicked looks and quickly looked around the room for a place to hide. Both of them saw the nearby closet, and, thinking the same way, scrambled into it, shutting the door behind them just as the front door came open.

Jake, wanting to see at least a little bit, cracked open the closet door very slightly. The couldn't see the Neighbor yet, but they could hear his footsteps and the front door as it was shut closed.

"Better lock my door this time." They heard the Neighbor grunt. "Or else those damn teens will get in here again." Then Jake heard a clicking sound, indicating that the door has been locked.

_No!_ He thought. _He locked the door! Oh man, this isn't good._

They heard the Neighbor's footsteps for a brief moment, but then he suddenly and eerily stopped in his tracks. "Something doesn't feel right here..." They could hear him growl. "I feel as if I'm not alone in here..."

More footsteps. Then, through the crack in the closet doors, Jake could see the Neighbor coming into the living room. Jake quickly made the crack in the door less apparent. Meanwhile, they could hear the Neighbor going around the room, checking everything that was there for any signs of change. After some time, they heard him gasp.

"Hey, wait a minute!" The Neighbor exclaimed angrily. "My chair wasn't like this when I left! Did somebody touch it?" The Neighbor paused, as if expecting somebody to magically answer. "Hello? If anybody's in here, you'd better get out!" He paused again, then circled around, looking at every corner of the room very quickly. Jake saw the Neighbor's eyes fall over the closet for a moment, and...did the Neighbor's expression change there?

No, no, he definitely still had the same expression. Jake rubbed his eyes, trying not to be paranoid at a time like this.

The Neighbor eventually just sighed, shaking his head. "You know what? I'm not in the mood to chase any annoying teens right now. Maybe...maybe some tv will clear my mind."

He sat down on his armchair and pulled out something a tv remote, which Jake hadn't seen before. It must have been sitting on the armchair earlier. The Neighbor pressed a button on the remote, and the tv came on. As soon as this happened, Jake quickly went and completely closed the doors so as not to give him and Jeffrey away.

Jake listened carefully, though. He could heard brief static noises mixed with other assorted noises, meaning that the Neighbor was flicking through the tv channels. After a minute, the brief static noises stopped. Then Jake could hear laughing and conversation between several people. A talk show, maybe? He couldn't make out what was being said, but apparently it was something very amusing, because the people were laughing too.

The Neighbor was even laughing too, which surprised Jake. The Neighbor laughed every time the people on the tv laughed. He probably found whatever they were talking about as funny as the people were.

As this went down, Jake and Jeffrey looked at each other, trying to be silent and communicate through their expressions. They both understood one thing, though: they'd be in the closet for a little while. Now that the Neighbor was in the room with them, he'd instantly see them if they even dared to try and leave the closet. Thankfully, neither of them could work up the nerve to do so, so they both stood there and listened to the sounds of the tv and the Neighbor's laughing, desperately waiting for a chance to escape.

After some time of more laughing, they heard another brief static noise and then silence. Jake took this as the tv now being off. He heard another sound and a few more footsteps.

"Ahh, I haven't laughed so hard in a while." They heard the Neighbor sigh. "At least that'll appease me, if nothing else will. Though, I'm...hungry. Yes, hungry. I think I'll go into the kitchen and make something. A grilled cheese sandwich sounds good right about now."

They heard more footsteps leading away, signaling that the Neighbor had entered the kitchen. They heard noises of cabinets opening and dishes being taken out.

At last, Jake worked up the nerve to try and leave the small, dingy closet.

"_Come on, Jeffrey._" Jake whispered as he and Jeffrey snuck out of the closet together. "_Let's hurry and get out of_ here."

They started tip-toeing across the room, heading for the door to the foyer. However, when they reached the middle of a room, a sound comparable to something being put down was heard, and then fast footsteps, and then the Neighbor has burst into the room.

"I KNEW IT! I KNEW SOMEBODY WAS HERE!" He shouted, anger back on his face. "Get back here, you little twits!"

"RUN!" Jake screamed instinctively, and he and Jeffrey took off, heading back into the foyer. They didn't dare try the door, because not only was it locked, but they couldn't afford to waste any time, either. They instead ran down the nearby hall, and then around the corner. The rest of the hall, however, didn't go very far. There was only just another closet and what seemed to be a wall with a gap underneath it. Jake could see a set of stairs underneath the gap, but he didn't dare look any closer. He had to keep running. He and Jeffrey turned around and ran into the left door of the front hallway instead.

Now they were in the Neighbor's bedroom. It had dark blue walls, light blue carpet flooring, and a white ceiling, similar to other rooms. There were lots of crates in here, put in corners and by furniture pieces, full of random things that hadn't been unpacked. The stuff that was out was a carpet that was colored with white bordered by red, another tv sitting on a small wooden table, a dresser with a three-way mirror, a tall lime-green lamp in the corner, and a neat blue double bed, with the sheets and blankets neatly made. There were two windows in here, one looking out to the front yard, and one looking out to the backyard.

Jake and Jeffrey made a mad dash for the front window, hoping to land in the front yard and finish their escape. Jeffrey hurriedly grabbed the window handle and tried to slide it open, but it stood in place. It was locked, and they had realized it too late.

Now the Neighbor came running into the room. "I've got you two now! You've already entered my house, and now you'll pay the price." He slowly approached them.

Jake quickly scanned the room for an exit, and he saw it: the back window was open, allowing escape. But now that the Neighbor had entered the room, he stood in the way of said window. Jeffrey, realizing what needed to be done, ran up to the neighbor and began running in circles around him.

"Hey! Over here!" He taunted as he did so. The Neighbor looked annoyed.

"Stop that, you annoying kid!" He demanded, trying to grab Jeffrey, but Jeffrey kept dodging the Neighbor's hands. Then Jeffrey called out to Jake.

"Jake, you need to run! Hurry and go out the back window!"

"But what about you?!" Jake exclaimed in worry.

"Forget about me, just get out of here!"

Jake nodded and ran past Jeffrey and the Neighbor, heading up to the back window. Now was his chance to get out of here. As a scream and a _thump_ rang out behind him, he prepared himself, getting his legs ready to jump out the window- but he couldn't go any further. A hand had grabbed the back of his jacket. Jake looked behind him, and gasped in horror.

The Neighbor had caught Jake, holding his jacket and preventing him from getting out the window. Jeffrey was laying on the floor, unconscious.

"JEFFREY!" Jake called, but Jeffrey didn't wake up. Meanwhile, the Neighbor was flaring with anger.

"I've told you this once already, boy, and it looks like I'm going to have to tell you again." He huffed. "Nobody, I repeat, NOBODY, ever comes into my house. And now-" He raised his fist. "-this-" He clenched it preparing to strike. "-is-" Jake saw his life flash before his eyes "-OVER!"

A flash as a fist came down. A loud ringing sound. A horrible pain.

And once again, Jake was out like a light.

* * *

Jake could suddenly feel himself coming back, he could feel himself waking up somewhere, somewhere...

"GAAAH!" Jake screamed as he came to and sat up hurriedly. "GET BACK!"

He was back home, back in his bed, like last time. Had it all been a dream this time?

Jake clutched his head, groaning. He wasn't just dizzy this time, but now he also had a huge headache. How he wished it could stop...

"Ugh...my head..." He groaned. "Was it...was it a dream this time around? Did I have a dream within a dream? Maybe...well, I guess I still haven't went and visited my neighbor yet. I'll go and say hi. This time around, he's just GOT to be friendly. Although that dream was so weird. It felt so real- AAH!"

Jake had turned and looked at the left side of his bed and jumped in surprise. Jeffrey was sitting cross-legged on his bed, looking as worn-down as Jake was.

"Morning, sunshine." He sighed deeply. "Have a nice beauty rest?"

"Woah. So it wasn't all a dream after all." Jake gaped. "Jeffrey, what are you doing here?"

Jeffrey chuckled a little. "I woke up here earlier, before you did, and I saw you unconscious here on your bed. I could've gotten you up then, but I decided not to. After all, we've both got to recover from the Neighbor's blows. Man, does that guy hit hard..."

"Well, uh, thanks. I guess. Why are you here with me, though? Wouldn't he...wouldn't he have put you back in your own house?"

"Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. Guess he thought we were roommates or something, even though we're not."

"Wait, do you even have a house?"

"Yes, of course I do. How else would I be living in this neighborhood?"

"Good point, but...man, does my head hurt. Looks like he dragged us back here, like he did last time with me."

"He certainly did. And now that I've actually experienced this firsthand...I'm sorry. I had no idea just how terrible being caught by him really was. I never dared to try sneaking into his house until you came."

"I don't blame you, man, I don't blame you..."

They both slid off the bed and stood up. Thankfully, their legs felt fine. They shuffled out of the bedroom and back to the living room, and they stared out the front window, looking out at the neighbor's house again. They were silent for a moment as they just stared. Then they spoke.

"What now?" Jake asked. "Are we going to leave him alone?"

"No. We...we can't." Jeffrey sighed. "He's still hiding something over there, and the townspeople are still being threatened. We can't just give up, not when everybody's counting on us."

"But..."

"Jake?"

"Fine, fine, we'll continue doing this. What's the next plan?"

"To sleep, Jake."

"Huh?"

"I said to sleep. We're not going over to his house when night is about to fall outside."

"It is?" Jake stared back outside, and looked to the sun. It was setting on the horizon, and light was fading from the street as the streetlights activated and started to cast light down at the darkening road. "It...it really is. Guess the time really flies when you're having fun, huh?"

They both laughed at this phrase, feeling much happier at that one funny moment. Their laughter died down after a minute before they continued talking.

"Listen, man, I've got to get going." Jeffrey said. "Gotta get home and go to bed."

"Makes sense." Jake sighed, and he yawned. "Here, let me show you the door."

Jake and Jeffrey walked over to the foyer. Jake politely opened the front doors for Jeffrey, allowing him to step out onto the darkened porch. Jeffrey stood there for a moment before turning back to Jake.

"Hey." He said. "Thanks...thanks for all of the help you've given me. I really appreciate it."

"What are friends for?" Jake laughed. "Seriously, though, it's all good. I'm willing to help you do this. Might as well make my new life interesting in some way, huh?"

"Yeah, I agree with that. Well, I'd better get going."

They shook hands with each other in a quick goodbye. Then Jeffrey began walking away, heading onto the sidewalk and walking to the left, heading down it as he waved to Jake. Jake waved back, grinning, until Jeffrey was out of sight.

Jake then closed the front door quietly and locked it too to ensure his safety before turning around. He thought of all that was going to happen now that he and Jeffrey were friends. Of the times they'd share, of the nice daily adventures they'd have, of the secrets they'd find...it all excited him to the core.

As he walked into the bedroom and closed the door behind him, he took comfort inside knowing that from now on, his life was going to get SO much more interesting...

* * *

**PHEW! Man, that was the longest chapter I've ever written for a story so far, longer than any of the chapters in my FNAF story at the time of writing this. I'm proud of it, though. I honestly think it's a massive improvement from the original chapter 1.**

**I hope you enjoyed this. I'm excited to get into the many shenanigans that'll come with this new story, and I hope you will be too. If you haven't yet, I'd appreciate it if you could leave a favorite or even a follow on the story, and keep up with it as it continues on. It warms my heart to see any kind of support for what I do and I can never thank you enough if you can take the time to do it.**

**With that said, I'll see you all next time.**


	2. Searching Inside The Shed

The neighbor's house stood across the street like a resolute shadow in the silence of a once-peaceful town, darkening everything by comparison. The neighbor was sure to be inside, as nothing was happening outside the house besides a few crows pecking the front porch.

Jake observed all this from the front window of his house. He was sitting in his furniture-less living room, staring ahead at the neighbor's house. It was another day in Hortonville, and it was as quiet as ever. The streets were empty, devoid of human presence or passing cars, of stray dogs or runaway cats.

Jeffrey was also there; he had come over later in the morning to discuss strategy with Jake. Earlier in the morning, Jake had gotten up and walked over to the commercial district of town. He had went and got a closer look at everything, and now he had the layout of Hortonville memorized. He had also went to the gym and worked out for a half-hour. But now it was later in the day, and he and Jeffrey were planning for their next incursion into the house. Jeffrey was sitting on the dresser that was in the middle of the room, watching Jake look out the window.

Finally, after being satisfied with what he was seeing, Jake began to speak.

"So, what's the plan, again?" He asked Jeffrey. "I know you want us to go into the house again and possibly get caught by the neighbor, who may not be as merciful to us as he was last time." Jake turned to look at Jeffrey. "Am I right?"

"Correct, but without the 'getting caught' part." Jeffrey replied. "The whole point of this is to save the town, and we're not going to accomplish that by getting caught. We gotta stay vigilant. But you got the 'breaking into the house' part down."

"And the key, how's that going to play into this?" Jake took out the silver key he had found in the neighbor's house during their first excursion into it. It gleamed in the light. "It's gotta fit somewhere, right? Obviously, it probably wouldn't go into the front door since the neighbor can lock it without this key, but it hidden away under his shelf, so it's gotta go somewhere important."

"He might have more than one secret door in his house, probably somewhere we didn't see when we went in there the first time."

"Well, when you put it like that, then maybe it's also the key to showing us the true nature of the neighbor. To showing us what kind of things go on in his mind to do such cruel acts upon innocent people. Or maybe it's the literal key to his heart and I need to actually put it into his chest to show us his secrets."

"I mean, you can try to go put that key into his chest LITERALLY, but if you do, then I'm not going with you, because I can guarantee that doing that won't work."

"I was joking about that last plan, but even so, I refuse to just blindly stumble into his house alone. Either we do this together or we don't do this at all, Jeffrey. Besides, if we actually do try shoving this key into his chest, we can hope that it might kill him."

"Absolutely not. We're not going to lower ourselves down to the neighbor's level and attempt to murder him. At least, not if we can opt for a less violent option instead."

"What?! But why? That guy has probably imprisoned tons of people and you think it's not okay for us to try and hurt him if we can? He could be holding those people captive, torturing them and doing horrible things to them!"

"If we kill him, then we'd be no better than him. We have to save the people first, and then once we do, we can call the police and hope they can subdue this guy."

"But why don't we just do that now?"

"I told you this answer before: people tried that, and they got kidnapped. We need to get the missing people out of his house before we can try and get law enforcement to send him away from this place for good."

"...yeah, I guess that's a good way to handle this. Why are you sitting on my dresser, anyway?"

"You don't have any chairs in your house yet, Jake, so where else am I supposed to sit?"

"Fair point-" Jake suddenly gagged, having whiffed Jeffrey again. He smelled as awful as last time. "-ugh, that smell! Jeffrey, are you ever going to go and take a shower like I told you to?"

Jeffrey looked a bit sheepish. "Oh, that. Yeah, I keep forgetting to do that. Sorry. I'll get to it sometime soon, I promise. Besides, maybe we shouldn't rack up the water bill."

"I mean, I guess it's good that I don't have to get a high water bill this week, so maybe that's a plus to this."

"Thanks. Anyways, I've been thinking about nothing but this entire situation recently, and I made sure to think up a good plan last night when I went to bed. Now that I'm back here, we should get this plan into action."

"Right." Jake and Jeffrey went through the doorway nearby and came to the foyer, coming over to the front door and looking through the windows at the neighbor's house. "So, we can't go directly through the front door because he probably remembered to lock it this time." Jake peered at the neighbor's house and was surprised to see a bunch of stuff piled in front of the doors. "And he's blocked the front door with stuff, too. Great."

"We can get around that. If we can't go through the front door, then there's gotta be a door or window around the back of the house that we can enter through instead."

"Alright, then that's settled. Let's do this."

They opened the front door and closed it behind them as they stepped onto the porch. Jake took one last look at the house to be sure the neighbor wasn't anywhere in the front yard, then he and Jeffrey made their way towards it. They headed away from Jake's house and began crossed the street, not bothering to look both ways since nobody would be driving around town today. Or ever. Not unless they wanted to be kidnapped.

They headed past the fence all around the house and onto the neighbor's front lawn, and then they started to circle around the house, heading to the right. Jake saw nothing in the window to the living room. As he and Jeffrey passed by the living room, they noticed the neighbor in the window showing the kitchen. He was at the sink, washing dishes gruffly. They crouched down and passed by the window, the neighbor not noticing them as they went by.

Then they went down the right of the house, passing by more windows that showed even more rooms of the house. The first one they passed by once again showed the kitchen. This time, the neighbor was pulling a cake out of his oven. They quickly and quietly hurried by that window and kept going.

Jeffrey looked into the next window they passed by, both shook his head to confirm nothing was in there.

Finally, they arrived at the back yard. The grass here was as perfectly-trimmed as the front yard. There was nothing much back around here, except a rake leaning against the wall of the house, a shed by the back-right corner of the backyard, and a ladder surrounded by an iron fencing and a metallic-like door, which led up to the roof (the ladder, not the door).

"Okay, so what are we looking for back here?" Jake asked Jeffrey, keeping his voice low so as to not attract attention.

"We need to find where that key goes." Jeffrey answered. "And we're going to start back here."

Jake looked around the backyard and saw the shed. He walked over to it to inspect it further. It was a pretty small orange-colored shed, with the doors into it closed and covered in boards to prevent entry. Jake took out the key and looked for a keyhole, but there wasn't any in the shed doors.

"Okay, I don't think it works in the shed doors." Jake assumed. "I don't see a keyhole anywhere. However, this shed is boarded off, so there might still be something important in here. If we can figure out how to get the boards off and open the door, we can see if the neighbor's hidden anything in here."

"We'd need a crowbar or saw to get the boards down." Jeffrey added. "So we should keep an eye out for that. This shed does look pretty interesting, though."

"Do you think one of the kidnapped people can be in there?"

"I'm not sure. It's a possibility, but we won't know for sure until we get the boards off."

"Hopefully he hasn't put them inside a box and compressed them inside, like with a hydraulic press or something. That reminds me of something I found out earlier. I went to town this morning to get a feel for the layout, and I got a newspaper out of this one box. Apparently there was an accident in a pizzeria up somewhere in Ohio. Some security guard guy got crushed in a gigantic hydraulic press down in some underground area. Nobody knows how that could've happened, unless that security guard went and stumbled into there by accident."

"What?"

"Actually, nevermind, it'd be ridiculous for somebody to be crushed inside a box in there. Forget what I said."

"Uh, alright."

"So, if we can't get into the shed...oh, I know! Remember that window in the neighbor's bedroom that we saw yesterday? It might still be open. We can go through there!"

"Oh, that window. You might be right."

"Let's go check and see."

They raced across the backyard over to the other end of the back of the house. Over here, there was a little area where there was a power box on the wall and a ladder leaned up against the wall, leading up to a window, which Jake knew was most likely the window he had tried to jump out of yesterday.

And he gaped at it. The window wasn't open anymore; it had been closed shut.

"Dang it!" Jake groaned. "He closed the window!"

Jeffrey looked up at the window, putting a hand to his chin. "Say...Jake, are you strong, by any chance?"

Jake, confused and yet also a little enticed by this question, grinned slightly. "Well, I don't like to brag, but I do go to the gym sometimes. In fact, I went to the gym in town this morning before you came over. I mean, I wouldn't say I'm as toned as the neighbor, but I can carry my own weight."

"Good to hear. Jake, I think you should try forcing the window open. It's open a CRACK, see?"

Jake looked and saw that the window wasn't actually completely closed. It was still open, but only very slightly.

"Yeah, it is!" Jake realized. "The neighbor must not have locked it!" However, Jake could also still see a mesh in front of the window. "But there's still that mesh."

"I can handle that." Jeffrey reached into his pocket and took out a swiss army knife. He flicked out one of the blades and climbed up the ladder, where he cut open and ripped away the wire mesh.

"Woah! A swiss army knife?"

"You bet. It was a birthday gift from my grandfather."

"Cool. Now, I'll get the window open."

Jeffrey put the swiss army knife into his pocket and climbed down, and Jake went up the ladder instead. Jake, with a little effort put into it, managed to force his fingers into the crack, and he pushed the window open completely, using all the strength he had.

"I got it." Jake told Jeffrey, and Jake climbed through the window. Now he was back in the bedroom he had seen yesterday. Seconds later, Jeffrey climbed through the window as well. They made their way through the doorway they had come through before, and now they were back in the front hallway of the house. They could hear the neighbor humming somewhere else in the house.

They passed by the closet and the wall with the gap, and they headed into a doorway to the left of the wall. Now they were in a small room, which was empty save for a box on one end of the room that was filled with random things. There was also a locked door over on the same side as the stairs had been. And it had a keyhole!

Jake, getting hopeful now, gestured Jeffrey to follow him, and they went over to the door. Jake took out the key, and, making sure to line it up correctly, inserted it into the keyhole.

It fit perfectly, thankfully enough. Jake quickly turned the key, and the door came open. Excited at this, Jake and Jeffrey entered into the room.

Now they were in a workshop of sorts. There was a small table with multiple blueprints and metal parts strewn about it, as well as a tool rack on the wall with nondescript things on it. However, one big tool in particular caught the eyes of Jake.

"A crowbar!" Jake exclaimed, and he took the tool of the wall and examined it excitedly.

"Perfect." Jeffrey responded, looking pleased with this find. "Now we can remove the boards stuck on the basement and shed doors!"

"Excellent! Although...is it wrong for me to be excited about this? Technically we're breaking and entering a house without permission, even if it's being done to stop some horrible neighbor guy."

"I know it looks bad, but we're doing this for the greater good. Everything we do, we do to save those missing people. Ah, but that crowbar is a good find. Seeing it reminds me of some video games I used to play when I was a kid. I always liked whacking enemies with a crowbar."

"This feels like a video game in itself. Like a stealth horror game where you wander around creepy houses and gather tools to make an escape or something."

"Yeah, it kinda is. Similar, but different. Anyways, now that we've got this, let's go."

Jake put the crowbar inside his jacket so nobody would see it. Then he and Jeffrey snuck out of the workshop, Jake making sure to lock the door behind them, before continuing down back into the hallway. Jake made his way to the corner and froze suddenly. He could hear footsteps sounding in the hallway. Jake paused, unsure of what to do...and then the footsteps suddenly stopped.

Wary as possible, Jake slowly peered around the corner...to see that nobody was in the hall. Breathing a sigh of relief, he turned around to motion Jeffrey to follow him-

And a loud _THUMP_ sounded out as Jake began to turn around, and Jake whirled around to see that Jeffrey was slumped on the ground, unconscious.

"WHAT?!" Jake shouted out, but before he could say anything else he was grabbed from behind, gloved hands over his neck.

His neck?!

Jake was turned around forcibly to see the neighbor scowling at Jake with absolute, over-encompassing fury. He was clearly not happy to see Jake.

"Where do you think you're going, boy?" The neighbor growled. "What, you think you can just come in my house and make a ruckus without me knowing?!" He raised a fist up. "Well, let me tell you something: YOU CAN'T!"

He wacked Jake across the face with the same brick-like force, and Jake was knocked unconscious in an instant before he could even cry out for help...

* * *

"GAAAAAAHHH!" Jake screamed as he shot up on his bed, thinking he was being attacked...but he realized he was back home again.

"Good morning again, sunshine." A voice said, and Jake turned and saw Jeffrey sitting on the floor beside his bed, a hand rubbing his head.

"What are you doing in my house- oh wait, that's right: we were trying to bust into the neighbor's house and got caught again."

"Yep. Hurt just as much as last time." Jeffrey rubbed his head with more vigor. "Ouch, what a headache..."

Jake, suddenly becoming more aware of their excursion into the house, reached into his jacket...and took out the crowbar. He grinned at it, feeling better now that he knew they still had it.

"Alright, we still have the crowbar." Jake assessed, happy about this. "That's good!"

"Somebody's chipper." Jeffrey chuckled.

"Sorry, I'm just...really starting to get into this whole 'sneaking into his house' business."

"Well, if you want, we can start planning again right away. However, there is one thing you should know."

"What?"

"Look outside." Jeffrey pointed at the window looking into the backyard.

Jake, wanting to see what was wrong, went over to the window and peered outside to find that it was night out, with the moon shining overhead and darkness cast over the backyard.

"It's night?!" Jake exclaimed.

"Yeah, unfortunately." Jeffrey sighed. "We were out quite a while. Now it's evening time."

"Dang, then I think we should get to sleep, then. You'd better head home-"

"Actually, we don't necessarily need to go to sleep now. I was thinking about how we'll be more careful next time we go in there, and I remembered something. So, normal people usually go to sleep at night, right?"

"Yeah?"

"So we should head over to the neighbor's house now. Maybe he'll be asleep."

"Hey, that might be true. He could have gone to bed or fallen asleep watching television. Normal people always do that."

"Well, I'm hoping he did. Like I said, he's not really a 'normal' person as far as normal goes, but from what I can remember, he does go to sleep around the same time as normal people."

"Right. Although we do still need to be more careful. I hate getting caught by that guy. In fact, this is just more reason for you to TAKE A SHOWER, Jeffrey. That stench coming off of you is probably attracting his attention."

Jeffrey paused, then sighed and nodded. "Okay, okay, you're right. Listen...we'll take one more incursion into his house today, and then after that, I'll take a good, long, hot shower when I get home. I'll even make it more vigorous if we manage to find a secret of his before our incursion is over. Deal?"

"You've got a deal." Jake accepted. He liked the idea of Jeffrey finally taking a shower and was more than willing to go for another incursion into the neighbor's house if it meant that Jeffrey would get clean afterwards. Besides, Jeffrey was Jake's friend, and Jake wanted to help Jeffrey save those missing people. "Let's head over to his house now, and let's hope that this time, he'll be asleep."

They exited the bedroom, heading out of the house.

* * *

When they arrived back at the front yard and looked through the window into the neighbor's living room, they were pleased to see that the neighbor was indeed asleep. He had fallen asleep sitting upright in his armchair, a hand to his cheek as he slightly tilted forward in his sleep. The tv was buzzing with the noise of another talk show.

"Alright, he's asleep." Jake said, nodding. "Let's go and get this done."

Jake and Jeffrey traversed the same path they had the last time they had come, heading to the right and around the house, coming into his backyard. Jake took out the crowbar from inside his jacket and headed over to the shed. He prepared his muscles, then got to work, tugging each board free from the door with the steel crowbar. After half a minute of effort, every board was off the door, allowing access inside.

Jake opened the doors and peered into the small shed. It was full of gardening tools, with even a weedwhacker hanging on the left wall and a spare rake sitting off to the side. However, there was also a shiny white key sitting on a desk off to the right of the shed. Jake quickly snagged the key and put it away for later use. He then walked out of the shed, and, feeling confident that everything had gone as planned, began to close the shed doors.

_CREEEAAAAAKKKK!_

The shed doors made a horribly loud noise as Jake slammed them shut, and from inside the house they could hear a ruckus being made seconds after. The Neighbor had woken up.

Panic-struck, Jake and Jeffrey quickly ran away from the shed and hid behind the wall of the other side of the house, Jake catching a glimpse of the Neighbor heading around the house on the same path Jake and Jeffrey had used earlier.

The Neighbor once again looked quite peeved as he roughly strode along into the backyard, a flashlight clutched in his hand and pointed forward.

"Swore I heard something back here..." He grunted as he swiveled his flashlight along the fence, over to the shed, and across the backyard. He suddenly eyed the grass. "Looks like the grass isn't as even as I thought. Damn. I'll have to trim it tomorrow morning. And those annoying bratty kids better not mess my lawnmower up either, because if they do...well, I'm going to have to take a trip to the garden store later tomorrow." The Neighbor eyed the shed, and he looked surprised, then suspicious. "Wait a minute. Where are the barricades I used to block the shed doors?"

_Please don't check inside, please don't check inside..._ Jake repeated in his mind, scared that the Neighbor would go in and find out that his key was missing.

"Must've been those rabbits again. I swear, they don't behave like normal rabbits. What rabbits take the time to gnaw down my barricades?"

"The rabbits around this neighborhood are particularly pesky. Especially to the neighbor." Jeffrey commented quietly. "I wouldn't be surprised if the neighbor has some of them captive, just like he has some of the townspeople captive."

The Neighbor, meanwhile, eyed the shed door for a moment as if debating whether he should check inside, then faltered. "Surely nobody's got inside my shed. Those damn rabbits shouldn't be able to open the doors. The key should be safe."

Jake breathed a sigh of relief. _Good, he didn't check. He won't know we took his key._

The Neighbor then walked over to the iron fencing and the metal door over the ladder to the roof. "Good, the door to the roof is still closed up. The rabbits shouldn't be able to get in there. Even if they did, there's no way they can climb ladders."

Jake felt a little confused hearing this. _But what's supposed to be on the roof? He's not hiding something up there, is he?_

The Neighbor then turned away from the ladder and started towards the side of the house where Jake and Jeffrey were. Alarmed, the two of them sprinted away, heading down the side of the house, and past the front yard. As they passed, Jake saw that the neighbor had left the front door of his house wide open, the stuff on the other side shoved away.

"The front door's open!" Jake called to Jeffrey. "Should we make a run inside now?"

Jeffrey eyed the doors with apprehension and hesitated. "I don't know, Jake. This one's up to you!"

Jake looked back at the door again, also hesitating for a moment, trying to consider his options. Was it worth it to try to go inside the house again, even though it was late at night?

No, it wasn't.

"We can't chance it twice in a single day!" Jake decided quickly. "Let's get back to my house!"

Without taking a moment to stop and consider their decision, they raced across the street and headed back onto the front porch of Jake's house and opened the front door, heading into the house and closing it behind them.

"Yeesh, we had no time to make that choice." Jeffrey sighed.

"We made a decision at least." Jake reminded him. "It's better off we don't go in there twice in the same day. I've already got key and I can't risk losing it over another failed excursion."

The two of them watched as the Neighbor came out into his front yard, momentarily looking around for a sign of any other human presence. After a few long moments, he seemed to give up, and he turned around, heading back into his house and closing the front door behind him. The stuff blocking the door was pushed back into place.

"That was too close." Jeffrey remarked, tired from all the running. "We could've been caught again. And so late at night, too. Thankfully, we're still alive."

"And we've got the key." Jake said, pulling out said white key. "Any ideas where it goes? I think it might help us get to the second floor, but that's just me. We did see a wall covering a set of stairs, so there must be an upstairs."

"No, a key like that has got to fit into that metal door we saw in the backyard. We can get up to the roof and see where to go from there next time we go to his house. Speaking of, we should discuss when we do that."

"Tomorrow for sure. I remember the neighbor saying something about going to the store tomorrow, so we can go to his house then."

"I've also got another idea. Some of the houses in the residential district of Hortonville have been empty ever since the people living in them were kidnapped. Before you came, I did see the neighbor go over to one of those houses for around an hour before heading home."

"Good idea." They walked away from the foyer and back into the living room. As Jeffrey sat back on the dresser, Jake looked over at the stairs to the attic. "Also, eventually I've gotta go call the landlord and get the key to the attic. I need to find out why we have an attic so easily accessible."

"You'd better try not to forget." Jeffrey added. "Set yourself a reminder or something."

"I will. Anyway, I've gotta go to the restroom real quick. Be right back."

"Go ahead. While you do, I think I'll order in some Chinese food." Jeffrey whipped out his cellphone and began dialing a number.

Jake ran off to the bathroom and quickly did what he was supposed to do, then came back into the living room just as Jeffrey ended the call.

"Alright, it's coming." Jeffrey said. "What do we do while it comes?"

Jake paused, then said: "Some investigating. I think I'll go out and see if the neighbor's asleep right now."

Jeffrey raised an eyebrow. "Right now? It's so late, though."

"Yeah, but I want to see if he's fallen asleep. That way we know when it's a good time to sneak in."

"Uh...okay...then. I'll just...be here."

Jake ran out of the living room and out the front door, heading for the neighbor's house.

* * *

A minute later, he found himself looking through the neighbor's bedroom window, keeping himself mostly out-of-sight to avoid detection.

The neighbor was sitting on his bed by himself, his eyes closed, seemingly absorbed in his own thoughts.

Then he got up, sighed, and looked around the room. His eyes fell on the open window looking out into the backyard, and he looked a little surprised.

"Damn, I forget to close the window again." The neighbor grunted, and he walked over and slid the window shut. "I'd better remember to close it, or something will get into my house. Hopefully not those damn rabbits. Can't they annoy somebody else?"

_These rabbits sound pretty wild. That's odd._ Jake thought.

Suddenly, Jake heard a noise behind him, and he turned to see Jeffrey creeping up behind him, moving over to look through the window too.

_I got bored_, he mouthed to Jake quickly.

Jake nodded, then looked back through the window. The neighbor seemed to be pacing around the room, contemplating something to himself. For no reason, he opened up one of the crates in the corner of the room, rummaging through it until he pulled out a small picture in a frame. Closing the crate, he walked over to his bed and sat down on it again, staring at the picture. It was turned away from Jake's view, so he couldn't see what it was.

And the neighbor looked...sad, somehow?

Then the neighbor stood up, put the picture back into the box, and turned out the lights. He also shoved the curtains closed, blocking Jake and Jeffrey's view, but Jake knew he'd be going to bed.

"Alright, he's going to sleep." Jake noted. "Jeffrey, what time is it?"

"About 11:00 P.M."

"It's that late? Man, he really likes to stay up a long time. Now, as for what's next, well, next time we see him, we can try using the crowbar on the doors. Or maybe even attack the neighbor with it."

"Attack the neighbor? Uh, that's not a good idea. You saw how he sneak attacked us."

"Well, I think attacking him might work. I dunno. We've got to try everything, right?"

"Yes, but attacking him is dumb. If anything, that'd be plan Z if we made our plans letter by letter."

"...yeah, guess you're right. Anyway, we should both head home and get some sleep. We'll need to be well-rested if we wanna keep trying to get into the neighbor's house."

The two of them walked over to Jake's house, and, when they got near the path leading to the front porch, Jeffrey stopped.

"Well, I've gotta go back to my own house." He said. "Night, Jake. I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you." Jake replied, waving as Jeffrey walked down the street. Then Jake turned and headed back into his own house, ready to get a good night's sleep from the general chaos that had ensued today...


	3. Up To The Second Floor

**Note: The universes of my FNAF series and this series are not connected. However, there is something, let's say, PARALLEL, about them.**

* * *

"Okay, so, let's get this plan underway." Jake said to Jeffrey intently.

Another day had come, and now Jake and Jeffrey had met up at Jake's house once more to decide what their next move would be. They had to be careful to plan things out correctly; neither one of them wanted to experience the neighbor's wrath again. As Jeffrey peered out the living room's front window at the neighbor's house, still standing at the other side of the street, Jake got to work.

He had put the items he had collected from the neighbor's house on the dresser sitting in the middle of the empty living room: the silver key to the workshop that he had found on his first excursion into the house, the crowbar they had nabbed from the workshop itself, and the white key he had found hidden inside the boarded-off shed.

"Alright, so let's try to see what we should take." Jake planned as he looked at the three items. "Firstly, we're definitely taking the white key. We still need to find out where it's meant to be used." Jake put the white key into his right pants pocket. Then he picked up the crowbar. "And then we have the crowbar...should I bring the crowbar with me this time? Do you think we'll need it?"

"Yeah, yeah, just bring it." Jeffrey accepted, although he did not say it very attentively, nor did he turn away from the window.

"I agree. Just in case, I'll bring the crowbar. Never know if we might need to defend ourselves or pull more boards off doors." Jake tucked the crowbar into his jacket. Then, finally, he looked at the workshop key. "And as for the workshop key, let's just keep it here today. We don't have a reason to go into the workshop right now. Now, as for the where the white key goes, I'm pretty sure that we're meant to put it into that metal door over that fence so we can go up the ladder to the roof."

"That's nice." Jeffrey said, still not looking away from the window.

Jake turned to look at Jeffrey. "Are you even listening to me, Jeffrey? I'm trying to plan things out right now."

"No, no, I'm definitely listening to you. Keep talking."

"Okay then. I'm gonna go blow up your house."

"Hey, what?!" Jeffrey turned around at once. "What'd you say?"

"Oh, NOW you pay attention to me. What took you so long?"

"I didn't like where you were going with that last sentence."

"I'm not actually going to blow up your house, okay? I just needed to get your attention. So, why are you staring out the window, anyhow?"

"Yeah...about that...I think you need to see this. This...it's not good."

"Wait, what? What's going on out there?"

"Just come over here and look."

Jake, confused as to what was going on, went over to the window and looked to see what Jeffrey was talking about...and did a double-take.

The neighbor was currently working out on his yard, more specifically, on his fence. The Neighbor was extending the height of the fence, making it twice the size that it was before, and even taller than he or Jake and Jeffrey were. The fence around the right and left of the house was already done, and he was busy constructing the heightened fence around the front yard. He was already almost done, because over by the area of the fence that had once been empty was now a big gate, which was currently open slightly. The fence had already been connected to the left side of the gate, and the neighbor was almost finished connecting it to the right side too.

The neighbor was also lugging a toolbox with him, which was open enough for Jake to see various misc. tools poking out from inside of it.

"He's constructing a bigger fence?!" Jake exclaimed.

"Afraid so." Jeffrey sighed. "Maybe we should listen in and see why."

"I guess so, yeah."

They opened the front window up, and, across the street, they could hear the neighbor talking to himself.

"Damn kids, damn bunnies, all of them keep breaking into my house." The neighbor was growling in annoyance. "The last time I let my guard down, they got into my shed. But now, they're not getting in here again. Not with this heightened fence, they won't. As well as that, I'll have to install some traps around my house in case they manage to get past the fence anyway."

"Traps?!" Jake repeated. "That doesn't good very good."

"Dang, I didn't take into account that the neighbor learns from our mistakes." Jeffrey told Jake, sighing. "I already told you he was not to be underestimated, and this is proof. Now that he knows we're intent on breaking into his house, he won't make it easy for us to get in there again."

"And worse yet, he's got a big gate blocking entry into his yard to come with the oversized fence. Let's hope he forgets to lock it."

"Yeah, he's got the kind of money available to buy some big defenses. Nothing too high-tech, but he's certainly able to put up something that's a force to be reckoned with."

"I better make sure to lock the gate too." The neighbor suddenly said from across the street, and he glanced at the gate. "Or else this fence upgrade won't mean squat."

Jake facepalmed. "Of course he's locking the gate! God, it's like he can secretly hear everything we say."

"I wouldn't doubt it. As I said, he's capable." Jeffrey added.

By this time, the Neighbor had finally got done with the fence extension. He wiped sweat off of his forehead, and, putting his tools back into his toolbox, said: "Alright, done. Good, good, good. Nothing is getting in, and only I can get out. It's perfect." He carried the toolbox with him as he headed over to the gate, went through it, and slammed it behind him. "Now, to make myself a sandwich so I can eat something and forget about those annoying kids." He stomped into his house.

"Dang, there he goes." Jake groaned as he watched the neighbor head into his house and out of sight. "What are we going to do now?"

"We'll have to find a way to get over the fence." Jeffrey explained gravely. "But it probably won't be easy. We'll need to come prepared."

"Wait a minute...did he lock his gate like he said he would?"

"Huh?"

"He just closed the gate, but I didn't hear any locking sounds. Do you think?"

"You mean...well, if it's unlocked, we should have an easier time."

"Let's go over and check."

Jake and Jeffrey ran out of the living room to head out of the house.

* * *

Minutes later, Jake found himself walking up to the big gate. Hoping that what he thought was true, he put his hands up to the gate and pushed.

It swung open at once. However, as it did, it made an obnoxiously loud _CREAK_, and Jake froze at the spot as he heard a loud bumping sound inside the neighbor's house; the neighbor had heard the gate open.

"Oh god, run for it!" Jake exclaimed, and, hurriedly closing the gate, he and Jeffrey ran back to the other side of the street, into Jake's front yard, and around the corner of the house to the right side of the house. They peeked around as they saw the neighbor's front door fly open, and the neighbor himself stomped out.

"Alright, I know somebody's there!" He growled. "I heard my gate open, loud and clear!" He went over to the gate and opened it up, stepping out to the sidewalk. He stared around at the area around the gate, seemingly expecting somebody to be there, but it was silent. "Hmph, looks like everything's fine. Must've been my imagination...hey, wait a minute...did I lock the gate the first time? Damn, I must've forgot again. I really need to stop losing track of this stuff." He went to the other side of the gate and slammed it shut, and Jake's eyes went wide as he heard sounds suggesting that the gate was being locked and shut tight.

"Augh, NOW it's locked!" Jake exclaimed.

"Great, we just had to jinx it, didn't we?" Jeffrey sighed.

"Can he hear us or something? We don't have microphones under our jackets, do we?"

"Doubt it, or the neighbor would've already spotted us over here. Also, what's with the stuff back here?"

"Huh?" Jake turned and saw that his stuff had been placed at the side of the house: his couch, crates, and tv were sitting over here. "My stuff! Darn, I think I put them back here and forgot about them."

"Good. I need to sit down for a moment." Jeffrey quickly sat down on the couch and sighed in peace. "Ah, that's better."

"Alright, good thing I finally found my stuff. I'm gonna need to move it all inside right now, though. Can you help me with that, Jeffrey?"

Jeffrey shrugged. "Why not? You're helping me, so I might as well help you in return."

"Great. Let's get to work."

They began working to carry everything inside.

* * *

After some time involving heavy lifting, all of Jake's stuff eventually got inside of the house. The couch had been placed on the back wall, and the tv had been placed on the dresser and was facing the couch. The crates had been shoved into the corner of the room, where Jake could empty them out later.

"Okay, everything's inside." Jake sighed, relived that everything was where it needed to be. "Now, I think it's time we go to the neighbor's house again."

"Agreed. Let's see what we can do to get in there." Jeffrey agreed.

Once again, the two of them headed out of the living room, through the foyer, and onto the front porch. Then they crossed the street, looking over at the house as they went. The neighbor was sitting in the living room, watching his tv, and not at all paying attention to what was going on outside.

They went around the right of the house and to the back, going up to the fence that blocked their way into the backyard itself.

"Well, now what?" Jake said. "We're going to need to find a way to climb over the fence if we want to get into the house itself."

Jeffrey looked around at the area they were at, then gasped. "I see something. Wait here."

Jake watched as Jeffrey ran off in one direction...then came back, dragging a big rock over to the area of the fence they were at. Once it was in place, they climbed onto the rock, then over the fence.

Jake, bracing himself, jumped off the fence and down to the backyard. His feet felt a small impact as they landed, but it wasn't anything that hurt. He looked around the backyard for what it was that they were looking for...and he spotted it: the metal door and enclosure blocking the ladder up to the roof.

Then he and Jeffrey quickly and quietly crossed the backyard, making their way over to the metal enclosure as silently as they could muster. As soon as they got to the metal door, Jake took out the white key from his pocket and inserted it into the metal door's keyhole. It fit perfectly, and the door swung open...with another loud _CREAK_.

Jake froze as inside the neighbor's house came another loud _BUMP_, signaling that, once again, the neighbor had heard the noise outside. Without a moment to spare, he scrambled up the ladder, Jeffrey behind them, and the two of them climbed up it until they reached the roof.

They did their best to stay balanced on the shingles before peering down into the backyard. The neighbor had arrived, and he was whipping his head around at ever square inch of the backyard.

"Whoever's here, you'd better leave, now." The neighbor warned. "Or there will be VERY serious consequences...nobody? Fine, then we'll do this the hard way." The neighbor looked over to his shed. "There had better not be anybody inside my shed!" He ran over to the shed and forced the doors open, looking inside for a good long moment, then closed the doors back up. "Okay, good. Nobody's inside, and my key is still safe." The neighbor took one last long look at the backyard, before finally saying: "Seems to be empty out here. I think I'd better go check the front yard, just to be safe." The neighbor rounded the corner of his house and went out-of-sight.

Jake breathed a sigh of relief. "Man, luck was on our side today. Not only did he not see us, but he didn't even notice the metal door was open, either."

"That's good. Now, what next?" Jeffrey wondered.

"Let's search for a window we can enter through." Jake stared along the length of the roof until he noticed a dormer, complete with a window they could enter. He pointed over at the dormer and gesturing Jeffrey to follow him. They made their way, carefully as ever, across the roof.

Once they had reached the window, they hit another stroke of luck: this window, too, was open a crack. Jake and Jeffrey got to work opening it; Jeffrey used his swiss army knife to cut the mesh, and then both teens used their combined efforts to force the window further open.

Unfortunately, they had put so much pressure on the window that it could not take it, and the glass of the window make a large, loud _SHINK _as a deep crack formed through it.

"He had to have heard that! Quick, get inside!" Jake exclaimed, and he and Jeffrey went through the now-opened window. Once at the other side, they had to jump down to the landing below; the stairs Jake had seen earlier were here, leading forwards and then right, over to a room next to the stairs.

Jake quickly headed up the stairs and across the room to another window at the other side of the room, where he could see the front yard below. The neighbor was out there, another focused yet furious look on his face.

"Alright, I heard that!" They heard him yell. "There had better not be anybody in here, or I SWEAR!" He paced around the front yard for a minute but didn't find anything. "What even was that sound? I heard something, but I don't see a damn thing out here..."

"Looks like he's focused on the yard." Jake noted. "While he does that, we should take a look around."

They headed away from the window and over through a nearby doorway that had been to the right of the room. Now they were in another room, except this one wasn't empty. There were a few crates strewn about the room, as well as a faded blue couch sitting in the corner by itself.

"He has quite a bit of stuff up here." Jake said, looking at the crates.

"This couch looks pretty comfy, too." Jeffrey added.

"It kinda does. Should we see how it feels?"

"We have time. I guess we can."

They both sat down on the faded blue couch, and Jake gasped in comfort. It was one of the most comfortable couches he had ever sat on, that much was clear. He felt like he could sleep on it for hours.

"Wow...this couch is amazing." Jake mumbled.

"Hate to admit it, but you're right." Jeffrey sighed. "Why keep such a great thing shoved in a corner like this?"

"I know, right? This is the kind of couch that I'd expect RICH people to have. It's probably the comfiest couch ever."

"Eh, well, I've sat on some other comfy couches in my life, but I do admit that this one is probably up there."

"Yeah...I could just...fall asleep...on this..."

Drowsiness was taking him over. He could feel his consciousness waning as he prepared to take a nice nap-

"Jake, no! Not now!" Jeffrey exclaimed, and Jake felt himself being roughly shaken back to consciousness. "We're still in a dangerous place!"

"Augh, sorry about that, Jeffrey." Jake apologized sheepishly, quickly standing up and moving away from the couch. "That couch was a bit too comfy. We need to get back to business." Jake, for yet another time, looked around the room for more things to look at. He noticed a wooden door at the side of the room they were in. "Hey, another door!"

He and Jeffrey made their way over to the door and headed through it. Now they were in a smaller room than the previous ones. It had few decorations besides a small table in the center of the room, a plain chair sitting off the side, a closet in the back corner, and some more crates strewn about. There were some other things in here, though, and they sparked Jake's interest: a crib, a map of the world, and a poster showing the letters of the alphabet. There were even a few toys laying about, like a baby bottle, a miniature basketball, and a toy soldier.

"What the heck is this?" Jake stuttered confusedly as he and Jeffrey stared down at the toys. "Why are there kids' toys in here? I haven't ever seen any children inside his house before."

"I'm not sure." Jeffrey replied. "I knew he had some people captive in his house, but...none of those people were kids. At least, not kids young enough to play with toys like these..."

"So this is what's been up here. Wait...Jeffrey, remember the staircase from our earlier times that we tried to break into this house? And how it was blocked off by a wall? I think we're where that staircase led to!"

"You're right, this is where that wall was blocking."

"How long has it been since he's been up here? A while?"

"No, that wall was a recent addition. Which can only mean...he might've been keeping somebody trapped up here. And after he blocked this area, he moved that person to where that locked-up door leads."

"To the basement! All of the trapped people have to be down there, if what we're thinking is true!"

"It's a hunch, but it's a good lead, too. If we want to get through that door, we're going to need to gather the tools to do it. Look around and see what you can find."

They searched around the room, looking inside the crates and the closet but not finding anything of note...until Jake spied something sitting on the table. It was a slightly crumpled page, looking as if it had been torn out of a book. Curious, Jake went over and picked up the page.

"Jeffrey, I found a page." Jake informed his friend.

"Really? Let me see." Jeffrey asked, and Jake handed over the page to Jeffrey. Jeffrey held it up to his face and scanned it for anything important. "Oh, it looks like the neighbor wrote on this page once before." He paused. "Most of this is nothing of note, but...there is one passage here that seems interesting. Come over and look."

Jeffrey held up the page and pointed at the part he was talking about, and Jake looked to see what was written.

_Journal Entry No. 5_

_Things are getting clearer to me by the day. The residents are behaving as usual, but still, some of them had to go out of their way to disturb me. Good thing I handled that._

_But it's clear to me that I can't trust anyone except myself. I have to do what needs to be done. This journal contains information...too much information. I can't risk it falling into the hands of my enemies. I have to hide the rest of it in different places so nobody will find it._

_Even so, there are other matters I must attend to._

_He's been trying to escape. All that pounding upstairs...it was too much. I've moved him somewhere more secure, safer...somewhere he won't be found, somewhere he won't be able to escape anytime soon. I can't let him free, never, or else history will repeat itself. And I can't let it. I won't._

_Besides that, I have to keep the other thing controlled too. It keeps trying to break free from where it is...if it escapes, I can't bear to imagine what would happen next. I need to keep it trapped where it is, and controlled to a level where it's harmless._

_It's getting stronger than ever, though. I don't know if I can keep it contained forever..._

_What do I do?_

Jake was perplexed. The journal entry was extremely vague, and it didn't really outright tell Jake and Jeffrey what they wanted to know. Instead, it left hints and clues, not giving the complete picture but not being uninformative either.

For starters, who was this _he _the neighbor was talking about? Jake supposed it must be one of the captive people, but why was the neighbor prioritizing guard over this specific person instead of over all the people captured in general? Was he important in some way? And why did the neighbor say that _history would repeat itself _if he didn't keep this person trapped? What had happened in the neighbor's past that sparked all this?

And, who was _it_, too? It seemed as if whatever this thing was, it was something the neighbor was trying to keep contained, and that it was _getting stronger than ever_. Was it something evil, or something good? And why was it an _it_? Was it because it was a gender-neutral person...or was it not a person at all? Was it something else entirely?

The neighbor had also wrote that he _had to do what needed to be done_. That was another mystery; what WAS the neighbor trying to accomplish by keeping all these people trapped? What was his reasoning for doing any of this evil stuff? Why bother?

All of these thoughts and more circled around in Jake's mind. He had many questions jumping out at him, but no answers to give in return, and everything this paper stated led to a dead end. The only thing he knew from this was that something was clearly not right with this neighbor, this house, and everything about it. Nothing was normal, nothing completely made sense, nothing seemed logical or sound.

"Wow...this is a lot of information, yet it doesn't give many answers." Jake decided to say after come careful thought. "What are we meant to have learned from this?"

"Well...this does give us a bit more info, but we need to find more later on." Jeffrey stated. "But this _he _the neighbor is talking about...who is it? I didn't know there was somebody the neighbor wanted trapped here more than anybody else." Jeffrey paused. "I remember the day that one guy our age tried to come into the neighbor's house...did he know something we didn't? Did he find out something about the neighbor that only he knows?"

"I don't know, but we should keep all this in mind."

"...right." Jeffrey tucked the page into his own jacket. "I'll hold onto this. We'll study it later and see what if we can draw any good conclusions."

"Good, good. Besides that, do you think the neighbor might've had anything else of note? Maybe a huge stash of treasure? That might explain why he never goes to work and just sits at home all day long."

"No, no, it's probably because of the captive people. He's staying here to keep guard over them, most likely. If he had a job, he'd be gone for hours, giving lots of time for the people to break out or for somebody to break them out."

"That does sound like the case. Speaking of jobs, I'm happy to have one myself."

"Wait, what? You do?"

"Yeah, I do. I work part-time at the convenience store in town. Makes me enough money to pay the rent and bills, too. The guy who owns the place is pretty reasonable."

"Wow, good job getting a job around here. Me, personally, well...I do deliver newspapers for _Downtown_ _News _every once in a while. They're the company who makes newspapers for this town specifically. Besides that, I also do some minor jobs for the townspeople around town every now and then; stuff that isn't regular jobs but usually gives me a little bit more money to spend. I usually have enough money to get by, though; my parents left me a pretty big amount to use. Should get me by for at least another year. Hey, speaking of...Jake, did you have any other jobs before you came to this town?"

"I did, actually. Well, I ALMOST did. A few years back, I was trying to get a one-week long job as a night watchman for a pizza place when me and my family took a vacation to Ohio to see some relatives for a while. However, when I sent the job application, I never got a reply. So I got lazy and decided not to get the job at all."

"Eh, okay then."

"Yeah. So, anyways, we should- hey, wait a second. Why is there a-" Jake had noticed that a sunbeam was beaming down over the table. He looked up to see where it was coming from and was surprised to see that there was a hole in the roof directly above the table "-there's a random hole in the ceiling?! Actually, that would've been a good way to enter. We didn't even need to break that window at all, did we?"

"I mean, we would've had to break a window anyway. Do you really think we can get back OUT the ceiling hole?"

"...good point. Guess I didn't think of that."

"No sweat, but seriously, that's pretty odd. The neighbor must've never bothered to hire a carpenter to fix this. Imagine how it'd be in here if it was raining or snowing, though. That would probably suck."

"Might be another reason why the neighbor moved the person who was in here, OUT of here. The note said he was making a lot of pounding, right? It might've been the person trying to get away from the hole and out of the room."

"And the bunnies might've been going through that hole, too. The rabbits in this neighborhood are so sneaky, I'd swear their ninjas in disguise if I didn't know better. Knowing them, they could probably EASILY come through the hole in the roof and start messing with the inside of the house."

"That is true, I guess. Maybe that's why he hates them so much. Anyway, I don't think there's anything else up here. We should probably get out of here and head back to my house."

"Good idea. Let's go."

They exited the room they were in and made their way through the second floor until they had reached the window they had come through earlier. The window was positioned high up, though, so they couldn't just go through it very easily.

"I know how to get up." Jeffrey stated. "Jake, give me a boost."

Jake nodded, and Jeffrey climbed up onto his shoulders. Jake lifted him up, and Jeffrey was able to grab onto the window and climb through it to the other side. Then Jeffrey leaned through the window and stretched out his hands. Jake grabbed them, and Jeffrey pulled him up, getting Jake through the window too.

The two of them made their way back onto the roof, and Jake stared down into the backyard below. He gasped.

The neighbor was back down in the backyard. He was over by his shed, hammer in hand as he nailed wooden barricades back onto the shed door. He hadn't seen Jake and Jeffrey yet, but if they made any noise, he would catch them at once.

Seeing this, Jake gestured Jeffrey to follow him, and the two of them made their way silently down the ladder from before, then back through the metal enclosure and opened metal door to the backyard. Then they ran as quietly as they could to the left side corner of the house, and out of sight of the neighbor.

Jake started for the front yard, but then paused as a drastic realization hit him.

"Jeffrey...I just realized that we don't have a way out of here." Jake muttered. "The door is locked!"

Jeffrey paused, then said: "Let's make our way to the gate. We'll see if we can open it from the other side!"

"Good plan! Come on, let's go before the neighbor sees us!"

As they fled down the left side of the house and towards the front yard, they heard the neighbor shout out.

"HEY! Why the HELL is the door to my ladder OPEN?!" He screamed in rage. "Okay, I KNOW somebody's here now! Come out, you brats!"

"He knows! We need to hurry!" Jake exclaimed.

They arrived at the front yard and made their way to the gate. However, as Jake grasped the gate handle from the other side and pulled, it didn't come open. He went wide-eyed as he saw that the door was locked with a key and also had a heavy board over it, one that looked way too heavy for him to lift.

"It won't open!" Jake yelled. "It's locked with a key and boarded off!"

"Damn! What now?!" Jeffrey exclaimed, frustrated by this development.

They heard the neighbor's loud footsteps approaching from the left side of the house. Taken off-guard, the two teens fled to the right side of the house and hid around the corner just as the neighbor came sprinting into the front yard.

"Who's here?!" The neighbor shouted. "Where are you brats hiding?!" Jake and Jeffrey did not speak a word. "...Hello? Anyone here? ...damn, there's nobody here. Must be those rabbits again. When will they stop bothering me? Ugh, forget this. I need to do something else." The neighbor stomped to his front porch and went inside his house.

"Alright, what do we do now?" Jake wondered, worried.

"I'm afraid to say this, but let's go back into his house." Jeffrey sighed. "Hopefully we can find the key to the gate."

They headed across the front yard and into the neighbor's house, heading through the front doors and onto the foyer...until the door slammed behind them.

Nearby, the door to the living room opened, and the neighbor started to walk out, but then gasped as he saw the two boys standing there.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" The neighbor demanded, looking angrier than ever. "How many times have I told you to stay out of my house?!"

Jake froze. The neighbor had seen them, and now their hopes of escape were looking grim. His mind panicking for a way out, Jake quickly tried to improvise.

"Uh, yes, hi! I'm here to sell you some good stuff!" Jake lied, putting on a fake smile.

"SELL me stuff?! I don't want to buy any of your useless crap!"

"Oh, but the deals are so good! How about a year's supply of, uh, CHIPMUNKS?"

"CHIPMUNKS?! I HATE chipmunks! The nerve you have to even SELL them to me...that's it, you two aren't going anywhere now!"

"Jeffrey, this isn't working! RUN!"

In complete panic, the two boys turned and ran down the hallway ahead of them, going down it and turning to the right...only to find themselves at a mostly dead end, with the stairs still blocked and the room next to them not offering any escape. Realizing their error, they turned around to run a different way, but the neighbor had already followed them, and he was there, slowly moving towards them with a look of fury on his face.

The boys, even more fearful, backed against the wall, staying rooted to the spot as the neighbor kept approaching.

"Nowhere to run now!" He barked. "Why are you even coming here to my house?! What don't you understand when I tell you to STAY AWAY?! The other residents caved so easily, and yet you two are yet still so stubborn! And you have the nerve to try and give me some bull crap about selling chipmunks, huh?"

"We don't like chipmunks ourselves, I swear! We're just doing our job!"

"You expect me to believe that? Well, let me tell you: you don't do the job of staying away, and you pay the price! I've HAD IT WITH YOU!"

The neighbor rushed at them, and Jake screamed out loud as a fist went flying towards his face, and Jake's reality exploded into a world of pain, a nightmare of suffering that wouldn't end, and everything was going black once more...

* * *

"Aagh!" Jake exclaimed as he came awake after what seemed like a minute passed. "Don't- wait, what? I'm back home..."

"Yeah, and you snore pretty loudly."

"Huh?"

Jake realized he was sitting on his couch back in his living room. To his left, Jeffrey was sitting on the other end of the couch, looking very tired and kind of beaten down.

"Glad to see you're awake." Jeffrey sighed.

"You too, but...looks like we got caught." Jake reflected. "Why'd he put us on my couch this time, though? Usually he puts me on my bed."

"I dunno. Maybe he felt like it would be easier carrying us to the couch instead of into the bedroom."

"Maybe. Feels weird waking up near you, though. Not because I hate you, but because it's just kind of awkward. And also, you still haven't taken a shower."

"Ha ha, no, I understand." Jeffrey grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "I still do need to take a shower soon. And maybe put on some cologne, too. Although, Jake..." Jeffrey stopped smiling. "To be honest, that could've went better. Next time, make a better plan then 'blindly charge into the neighbor's house and hope for survival'."

"Hey, no denying that you had a part in that idea too."

"Yes, I did, but you upset the neighbor by bringing up chipmunks, which he apparently hates. He could've been a lot more gentle with us this time, but thanks to us angering him, he hit us even harder than before."

"Okay, okay, I admit that was a mistake on my part. I'll try not to do it again."

"Thanks, Jake."

"No problem. So, we've got one of the neighbor's journal pages now." Jake pulled the page out from inside his jacket. "We know a little bit more now, but we've still got to keep going and find out more information. Now, I have an idea...remember how you saw the neighbor leaving his house for a little bit? Well, when he does that tomorrow, I think we should follow him and see where he's going."

"Hey, that actually sounds like a great idea. Good job coming up with that one."

"Thanks!"

"You're welcome. Well, until we can do that, all we can do is wait."

"That's true. Say, wanna watch some tv?"

"Your tv works?"

"It sure does. Let me just get it plugged in to the wall and we can watch something. I even brought an extension cord."

"Sounds good!"

And the two of them got to work getting Jake's tv set up, so they could relax and hang out for the rest of the day...


	4. Other Places, Part 1: More Than One

"And that concludes a marathon of The Office." Jeffrey sighed as he pointed the remote at the tv and snapped it off. "What'd you think, Jake? Pretty good show, right?"

"Actually, it was." Jake agreed. "At first I was convinced that this show was gonna be bad, but this was actually really good."

Jake had so far spent today in relaxation; Jeffrey had come over like he had the previous days and introduced Jake to 'The Office' and had Jake join him for a marathon of Season 1. When Jake had first heard about it, his expectations weren't high, but now that he had seen one season, he had to agree that it was a good show. They were sitting on the couch in the living room, having just finished up with said marathon.

"Isn't it?" Jeffrey said, grinning. "Can't wait to watch the next season. It's gonna be pretty good."

"It was already good so far. I didn't think the characters were going to do things like what they did, but boy, was I wrong! In fact, they ended up-"

"Ssssh, don't spoil it!"

"What? Why not? It's not like anybody's listening to us. Not even the neighbor could be spying on us, could he?"

"I wouldn't doubt that he could be. He is a very capable guy...and if he hasn't watched this show and just heard our spoilers, he might come after us again."

"Really?"

"Heh, no. But it's good to be cautious anyway, especially on anything concerning the neighbor. We don't want to give him another reason to hit us harder."

"Good point. Now, we do need to figure out what else we're gonna do today. I might try breaking through the attic door with this crowbar, for instance. I really want to find out what's in my attic." Jake took out the crowbar from inside his jacket and waved it around a little bit.

Jeffrey looked oddly at Jake. "Um, I get that we need to keep the items safe, but you don't need to carry around that crowbar all the time."

"It's for self-defense, though! I need to protect myself in case anybody, even the neighbor, attacks me! I'll do some sweet ninja skills with it and be on top in no time!"

"...you've been watching too many action movies, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I have. And you don't?"

"Sometimes I do, but I'm not crazy about them."

"Hey, come on, I could be a hero with this thing."

"Really? A superhero?"

"I mean, maybe! I could be 'Crowbar Man', who hits things with his crowbar until they stop moving!"

"...and then get the award for the lamest superhero name ever."

"Huh?"

"Only joking, only joking. Although, if you were a superhero, wouldn't you need to fit the criteria? Like, being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound?"

"I mean, I can walk on land perfectly fine, and I can swing this crowbar fine enough too. Although apparently my weakness is the neighbor, because he always seem to catch me and hit me over the head without me being able to escape."

"Speaking of the neighbor, maybe we should look out the front window and see what the neighbor's doing."

Jake nodded, and they went over to the front window of the living room, peering out to see what was going on. Coincidentally, the neighbor was out on his front porch, standing out and viewing his front yard. He appeared to be talking too, so Jake once again opened the window a crack so he could hear what the neighbor was saying.

"-great, another boring day in my life." The Neighbor sighed grumpily. "About time I do my morning run. I need to stay in shape so I can fend off anyone else who tries getting into my house. Especially those bratty teens...if they come back into my house, they'll pay. I swear they will."

"Man, the neighbor really does not like us, does he?" Jake said to Jeffrey as he watched the neighbor say this.

"Yeah, you can really come to hate someone once they break into your house several times." Jeffrey replied reasonably. "I don't think we've tried going up and talking to him, but I doubt that would work, or Hortonville wouldn't have become how it is now to begin with."

"True. I tried to be reasonable and talk to him normally the first day I came here, but he still got angry anyway. I did walk into his house without his permission, but he did just leave his door unlocked...although, even then, I still doubt he would've been inviting to me."

"Now, I need to stop screwing around and get to this." The neighbor sighed. He started to walk towards the gate, but paused. "Wait, wait, need to close my door this time." He turned, ran back up his porch to his front door and closed it up. "Alright, good, now...to get to this." He walked through his gate, leaving it cracked open as he went through it. "Jogging had better clear my mind today...and hopefully he will, too." Finally, the neighbor ran left and down the street in that direction, going out of sight of where Jake and Jeffrey could see him.

"Alright, he's finally left his house." Jake noted, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Now we can go back to his house and continue to try and find out where those people are. Although I can't help but wonder...where does the neighbor go every day when he goes for a run? The neighbor did mention a he...well, one day, we should follow him when he goes for a run, because then we'd be able to know for sure. Until then...actually, should we follow him or go straight to his house? Or do we go and watch tv for the rest of the day? Eh, maybe not the third option, though..."

Jeffrey paused, contemplating their plan for a moment, then answered: "Well, I think that we should try and accomplish something today. If we go over to the neighbor's house, find out something new, and THEN come back to watch tv, we'll have accomplished a lot in a single day, and feeling accomplished would be a pretty good feeling."

"Hey, that's an even better idea then I thought you'd come up with! Good job."

"All in a day's work. Anything works as long as it brings us closer to doing what's right."

"Right. Now, let's go and get over to the neighbor's house before he gets back. He doesn't take too long to do his runs, you know."

They went together, going out of the living room, through the foyer, and back out the front door. Jake made sure to close the door behind him.

"Gotta make sure to close my door so nobody can get in." Jake said to Jeffrey as he did. "And also to block out the bunnies, apparently, since they're so hardcore around this neighborhood. I don't really understand why, but I guess it's a thing."

Jeffrey, looking slightly amused, said: "I think the neighbor's starting to rub off on you."

"Yeah...he probably is. Better safe than sorry, though."

They crossed the street, with Jake making sure to look both ways, although this was more because he needed to keep an eye out for the neighbor than because he needed to look out for cars. Nobody would be driving their cars down this street.

Then he and Jeffrey made their way up to the gate. Jeffrey reached for the handle of the cracked-open gate and seemed ready to pull it open, but he suddenly stopped before he actually did.

"Hold on." Jeffrey muttered to Jake. Both of them fell silent for a moment. "...something doesn't feel right about this. Doesn't it seem a bit suspicious that getting into the neighbor's house is suddenly this easy? His gate is open and his front door is unlocked...it seems almost too easy."

"Don't worry, okay?" Jake replied, trying not to be concerned. "He probably just forgot to lock them again. Wouldn't be the first time he did. And hopefully he thinks we've given up by now. Besides, I've got the crowbar for self-defense. If he attacks us, I'll have something to use to defend myself."

"I'm not sure that the crowbar was specifically invented to be a weapon, though. Wasn't it made to open crates and pry stuff open?"

"It was, it was, but we're going to have to improvise and call it a weapon anyway. Whatever makes this work. Now, let's go in. I'm sure we'll be fine."

They opened the gate door and stepped through to the other side. As they did, Jake looked down and realized that he and Jeffrey were standing in the middle of a circle drawn on the ground in red chalk, with a pile of leaves inside the circle.

"Hey, what the-?" Jake got out, but that was all he could say, and the area they were standing on suddenly gave way underneath them, and the teens screamed as they fell down into a hole hidden underneath the leaves, which had been dug into the ground and covered with wood on the inside.

"See?! What did I tell you?!" Jeffrey exclaimed, looking slightly annoyed.

"This isn't a joke, is it?! If it is, it's not very funny!"

"I didn't do anything! I just KNEW something was wrong, though."

"Okay, okay, nevermind that! We have to get out of here! Can we climb?"

Jeffrey looked at the walls of the hole and at the exit to the hole above. We can't, unfortunately. The hole is too deep for us to lift ourselves out of. The walls are made of wood, too, so we can't climb the walls either."

"Dang! Now what?"

"I...I don't know. Maybe we have to wait for somebody to find us and rescue us- oh, wait, that wouldn't work. Nobody's outside right now."

"Ah-HA!"

Jake jumped, completely startled by a sudden shout from above. He looked up and was terrified to see that the neighbor was looking down into the hole, looking very pleased yet also still furious.

"So, you two brats are back, and you've fallen into my trap!" The neighbor yelled out. "I should've known you wouldn't stay away."

"Uh, no, you're just imagining us!" Jake fibbed, grinning fake. "This is all just a dream."

The neighbor laughed. "You think I'm stupid or something? Well, I'm NOT! I'm not being fooled by your petty words. All that matters is that I've caught you two in the act...AGAIN! And I'm going to have to make you pay a little harder this time around."

Jake was a little afraid, but he tried not to show it. He took out the crowbar from inside his jacket and waved it threateningly. "Okay, then, fine! You've got us, but we won't go down without a fight! If you're so tough, then come down here and FIGHT US like men! I've got a crowbar, and I'm not afraid to use it."

The neighbor's eyes spotted the crowbar, and his grin suddenly disappeared. He looked surprised, and now he was becoming angrier. "Hey, wait a minute. I recognize that crowbar...that's my crowbar, isn't it, boy?"

"What?! Pfft, no way! It's mine! I bought it from a store in town, yeah! I totally did!"

"I'm not an idiot, you brat. I know that's my crowbar. It disappeared from my workshop recently, and it the only two people I know would be annoying enough to take it would be YOU TWO! Well, it's not yours anymore. I'm taking that back."

"...uh, well, HA! If you want it, you'll have to come and get it!"

The neighbor grinned, cracking his knuckles. "With pleasure." He squatted down, preparing to jump down into the hole.

"Huh? Wait, wait, I take it back! You can have it- AAAUGH!"

The neighbor jumped into the air and leapt down into the hole, diving for Jake. Jake barely had time to react as he was tackled against the wall of the hole, with the force of the blow instantly knocking him out...

* * *

"AUGH!" Jake exclaimed, sitting up as soon as he came to. He was back on his bed again, as he had been the last few times the neighbor had caught him and knocked him out. _I'm back home again. Drat, the neighbor got me again!_ Jake sighed deeply. He had a minor headache from being knocked out. He reached his hand up to rub his head, but suddenly he realized his jacket felt a little lighter than usual.

Suddenly aware of what happened, he reached inside his jacket and felt around, but nothing was in there. His fingers could not touch the cold metal of the crowbar, because now it was gone.

_He took the crowbar! Dang! I should've been more careful with it. If I hadn't shown him I had it, then...I mean, it wasn't mine, but I liked having it. It was a pretty cool tool to have._

Jake then decided it was time to get up. He slid off of his bed, stretched momentarily, and then sighed again, this time in relaxation. He looked over at the entire room. It was as empty as it always was, except for the bed and...Jeffrey! Jake froze on the spot.

_Wait, where's Jeffrey? _He wondered, a bit of panic taking hold. _Oh no, he didn't get kidnapped, did he?_

Jake ran out of his bedroom and into the foyer. "Jeffrey! Jeffrey! Where are you?"

"In here." Replied the tired voice of Jeffrey from the living room.

Jake ran right into the living room and was thankful to see that Jeffrey was sitting on the couch watching television, looking very tired but alive.

"Jeffrey! You're still here!"

"Yeah, I am." Jeffrey replied, grinning slightly. "I didn't leave, I just got up before you did. You were still out cold, so I figured I'd watch some tv while I wait for you to come to."

"That's a relief. I was afraid you had gotten kidnapped by the neighbor."

"Nah, he just knocked us out and sent us back here, as usual."

"As usual, yeah." Jake leaned over to see what the tv screen was displaying and grinned: it was _He-Man_. "Hey, you're watching this show? Count me in!"

"Sure, come watch. It's getting good right now."

Jake plopped down on the other side of the couch, letting his entire body sink into the cushions of the couch as he looked over at the tv screen while continuing his conversation with Jeffrey.

"This is a pretty good show."

"It sure is, Jake. It sure is."

"I didn't miss anything exciting, did I?"

"Oh, not much. Just the season finale of the last season."

"What?! Aw, but that was meant to be the most important episode of the bunch! I can't believe I missed it."

"Well, we can re-watch it later if you want. Right now I'd rather watch the episodes of this season."

"Yeah, alright."

They sat in silence for a moment, staring ahead at the tv screen and listening to the sounds of talking and other stuff coming from the tv.

"So, Jake, how was your rest? Probably pretty rough, I'm guessing."

"Yeah, just about. Not one of my better times sleeping. Although I did wake up a little earlier than I thought. I guess the neighbor tackling me wasn't as effective as when he hits me with his fist."

"Probably."

Another silence. They could hear the wind shaking the trees outside, due to it being quite windy today. On the tv, one of the characters was currently in the middle of a long, drawn-out monologue.

"You know, Jake...in terms of how we've been getting into the neighbor's house...maybe we're not going at this the right way."

Jake raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Maybe, instead of trying to force or sneak our way in, we can try to disguise ourselves. We could try being businessman and offering to sell the neighbor stuff. I dunno if the neighbor could be swayed by that, but at this point, I'm willing to try it."

"That does sound like a good plan. I don't own a suit, though...do you have any suits we can put on?"

"No, but there's a clothing store in town. I can go rent us some suits for a day."

"Awesome, I'll come with you when we do that. I've got some money to spare. Also, we can take my car into town too. I like walking to town everyday, but I think it'd be easier if we drive."

"Thanks, Jake. It's things like this that make me glad we're working together."

"Me too. Say, I wonder what the neighbor could possibly be doing right about now. Should we go and check?"

"It's your choice, though I think we probably should."

"Then let's do it."

They both sat up off of the couch, Jeffrey quickly grabbing the tv remote and snapping the tv off. Then he and Jake went over to the front window of the living room, looking outside. Coincidentally, the neighbor was standing outside on his front porch at that moment in time. He was looking off at the neighborhood, looking sort of calm but still grumpy. Jake hastened to crack open the window so he could hear the neighbor.

"Can't believe it's in the afternoon already..." The neighbor muttered.

"What's he doing outside?" Jake wondered. "He was doing the same thing this morning..."

"Yeah, I'm getting a small sense of Deja vu from this." Jeffrey commented. "Here we are, watching the neighbor through the window, just as we did this morning. Feels like we're in groundhog day and the same moments keep repeating."

"Sort of, yeah. Good thing it's not really groundhog day though, that'd make no sense."

"Well, enough standing around and wasting time." The neighbor grunted, and he stomped off his front porch, down to his fence gate, through the gate (which he closed behind him), and onto the street. "Time to get out of here for the afternoon. I'd better head over to the other place."

"He's going out again!" Jake exclaimed. "I know what we're going to do! Let's follow him and see where he goes."

"My thoughts exactly." Jeffrey agreed. "I figured we should go and follow him outside sometime. We'd better be careful, though. The streets of Hortonville can be a dangerous place with the neighbor around. If he spots us, we'll be in trouble."

"Okay, then we'll be sneaky. Let's go."

They quickly ran out of the living room, through the foyer, and out the front door. Jake made sure to lock it behind him as he stepped onto his front porch. The neighbor had only just started running, going down the street to the left just as he had last time. Thankfully, his run was more of a jog this time, and he wasn't going at full speed like Jake had seen him go before.

Jake and Jeffrey quickly made to follow him, though they kept a safe distance so the neighbor wouldn't see or hear them coming. They crossed the street to the other side, which was the side of the street the neighbor was running on, and continued after him. As they went down Sunset Avenue, they passed by many of the houses along the street. Jake glanced at every house they passed. He could hear faint noises of activity inside every house, which suggested that the other residents of the street were keeping as quiet as possible, just as Jeffrey had told Jake.

As they followed the neighbor, Jake and Jeffrey occasionally had to dive behind trees or into bushes when the neighbor decided to look back, but thankfully they were quick enough not to be spotted.

Eventually they passed an intersection between Sunset Avenue and a street called Olive Street (according to a street sign that Jake passed by as he and Jeffrey kept going), where the neighbor crossed the intersection and kept going down Sunset. Then, after passing one house, the next one he suddenly slowed down and stopped at, standing in front of the walkway to this house. The house wasn't as big as the neighbor's house, but with its faint orange coloring and faded white roof, it looked fine.

Jake and Jeffrey hid by the side of the house, watching carefully as the neighbor stopped and observed this house. They made sure not to peek as the neighbor quickly whipped his head to the left and right, checking one last time for anyone else nearby.

"Alright, nobody's around...good, they had better not be here." They heard the neighbor mutter. "Time to go in and check on things."

And to Jake's surprise, the neighbor pulled a key out of his pants pocket, walked up to the front door of the house, unlocked it, and stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

"He just went in that house!" Jake exclaimed. "Does that mean...he owns this house, too? He owns MULTIPLE houses?!"

"This is news to me." Jeffrey added, looking very suspicious and also surprised. "I knew this guy had already kidnapped people out of their houses and homes, but I had no idea he was stealing their houses, too. He's even worse than I thought..."

"Well, he's got to be hiding something in here, too! He just said he was going in there to 'check on things'. That means there's something in there! Maybe...oh! He might have the rest of his journal in there!"

"Perhaps. The journal entries seem to have been split apart, though. However, even though we only found one back at the other house, but there could be more!"

"Exactly! Remember that the journal entry we found said that the other entries have been hidden in different places? This could be one of those places! Besides that, there could be other stuff here! Maybe one of those missing people...well, it could be anything!" They paused. "The neighbor's taking a while in there. Should we check to see what he's doing?"

"Leave it to me. I'll check the window." Jeffrey volunteered, and he quickly ran past the fence, over to the front windows of the house, and peered inside...then, seconds later, gasped and ran back to Jake. "He's coming back out! Hide!"

Jake yelped and he and Jeffrey quickly hid behind the side of the house again, just as the front doors of the house opened and the neighbor stepped out, closing the doors behind him.

"Thought I heard something out here..." The neighbor grumbled. "Alright, who's here? Better not be you damn rabbits again, because this time I won't go easy on you! Better not be any other wild animals, either!" He looked around at the front yard as if something were about to pop out, but seemed unsatisfied to see that none of that sort happened. "Hmph. False alarm, then. Well, I'd better get back home before something happens." The neighbor walked down the dirt walkway of the house, back onto the sidewalk, and ran down the street back the way he had came.

"Let's move out. We need to follow him a bit longer." Jeffrey ordered. He and Jake quickly sprinted after the neighbor, keeping a safe distance.

And they did so as the neighbor ran down the street, and after some time of this, they finally arrived back at the area of the street with Jake and the neighbor's houses.

"Okay, we're back." Jake sighed. "Now, as for what's next...I think we should head back home. I'm tired. I mean, we've already discovered that the neighbor has a second house, so that should be enough for today. Maybe tomorrow we can head over there."

"Good idea. It is about to become the evening." Jeffrey pointed out, pointing at the sky. Jake looked and only now noticed that the sun was starting to set, the sky slowly turning orange instead of blue.

"Oh, didn't notice that. In any case, let's head back home." They began to walk across the street towards their house. "And let's try to pretend we didn't do anything today, okay? Especially not that we followed the neighbor."

And then, before Jake could say anything, he felt himself being kicked, and he fell over. He turned his head to see that Jeffrey have been shoved aside, and the neighbor was standing over Jake, his fist already raised.

"I knew it! Somebody WAS following me!" The neighbor exclaimed furiously. "You've made a big mistake this time, boy! It's time I teach you a lesson once again!"

"Wait, no-!" Jake tried to scream, but the neighbor's fist had already been brought down on him, and the consciousness Jake had was suddenly going away as everything went black...

* * *

Jake groaned as he started to come awake. He already knew he had been caught by the neighbor once again, and he expected to be lying on his bed as usual. But why the bed feel so uncomfortable today? It was as if he was laying on a marble floor-

-which turned out to be the case, because as Jake opened his eyes and sat up, he realized he had been sprawled out on the floor of his bathroom.

"What the heck?" Jake groaned as he looked around, taking in that he was indeed in the bathroom. "How did I wake up here? Huh, this is weird." Jake got to his feet and exited the bathroom at once, heading into the foyer. "Hey, Jeffrey! Are you there?"

"Yeah, in here." Jeffrey's voice called from, as last time, the living room.

Jake made his way into the living room and found Jeffrey back on the couch, watching tv like he had been last time. Except this time, Jeffrey looked even more worse for wear then he had before, as he was more slumped onto the couch then he was sitting on it.

"You're awake. Good." Jeffrey said. "It's the next day now, Jake."

"Hey, there you are. Are you doing alright?" Jake asked, a little concerned. "You look terrible."

"I'm fine." Jeffrey muttered in a tired way, his eyes flicking over to look at Jake. "Just a little beat...getting caught twice in one day is not my cup of tea. But this tv show is pretty good, so much so that I can kind of forget what happened today..."

"Hmm." Jake sat down on the other side of the couch and stared at the tv as he continued his conversation with Jeffrey. "Did I miss anything this time?"

"Nothing much. Only a couple filler episodes."

"The neighbor put me in the bathroom this time."

Jeffrey's eyes widened. "He did? Odd, I woke up here and I thought you'd be in your bedroom like usual."

"Yeah. Suppose the neighbor must've decided to change his routine." Jake yawned. "Man, I am tired. The neighbor was way more brutal with his whole 'knocking us out' thing today. By the way...did you take a shower?"

"Uh...I forgot to. My bad."

"Thought so. You smell pretty terrible, too."

"Oh, thanks!"

Both of them laughed together for a moment, then went silent again. Then they kept speaking.

"We've been using your tv a lot, Jake. Hopefully your electric bill won't be too high."

"It's fine. I can pay for it if I need to."

"Oh, then, good. That's convenient, I guess."

They paused speaking again. They could hear the noises of more birds chirping outside. One in particular was letting out a very melodious tune, louder and more extravagant then the other bird sounds being made.

"We have a plan now, Jeffrey. I know what we're going to do next time."

"Me too. That house, right?"

"Yep. We need to go over there and see what's in there, don't we?"

"Absolutely. This may bring us a step closer to finally finding out where those missing people are."

"My thoughts exactly. Until then, let's take a break and watch some more tv. I'm way too tired to try the neighbor's patience right now."

Jeffrey nodded, and the two of them started to focus on the tv, taking a well-deserved break for their hard work today.

* * *

Meanwhile, over at a newly-found second house, two green eyes stared out of the darkness inside.

Waiting for it to happen again.

Waiting for him to come home.

_To be continued in part 2._

* * *

**There's part 1 out! Part 2 is coming next, where the mysteries of the mysterious second house will be finally explored, and some discoveries will be made...**

**See you all next time.**


	5. Other Places, Part 2: Finding Secrets

So it was another day. Another day full of opportunities, full of things to do. Knowing as much, Jake decided he would start off the day on the right foot: washing up.

He was already in the bathroom. He had just went and now he was washing his hands using some soap he had bought from the grocery store in town, as well as a few towels in case he needed to dry his hands. He hummed as he went, making sure to thoroughly clean between his fingers.

Today would be a good day. Jeffrey had already come over and was sitting watching tv, meanwhile Jake had decided he would clean himself up as good as he could before he and Jeffrey proceeded. And it was going good; Jake liked the feeling of the water on his hands. To him, it was soothing. After he got done washing his hands, he reached for a cup sitting next to the sink nozzle and pulled out his toothbrush from it, as well as his toothpaste bottle, and brushed his teeth, making sure to get in between the gums as good as he could.

Once that was done, he sighed to himself, relaxed that he had completed the cleaning procedures he was meant to do every morning.

_Ah, finally done. _He thought, smiling. _Today ought to be a good day if I keep all this up. Now that I've finished in here, I should go and watch tv with-_

Just then, Jake heard a knocking at the bathroom door, and he turned and headed over to the bathroom door, opening it up. Jeffrey was there, standing on the other side.

"Hey, dude! You finished in there?" He asked, grinning.

"You bet." Jake replied, nodding. "Anything you plan to do in here?"

"Yes, actually. Let me come in."

Jake moved aside and let Jeffrey head into the bathroom. Jeffrey headed straight to the sink and started to wash his hands as well.

"You're actually getting clean, for once?" Jake chuckled. "That's a first."

"Hey, knock it off." Jeffrey laughed jokingly. "I'm just washing my hands, that's all. The rest of my body comes later."

"Speaking of that, did you finally take a shower today?"

"Yes, Jake, I finally remembered. I took one right before I came over here to hang with you."

"At last! Thanks for finally getting to it. I was convinced that you were never going to touch the shower even once. Glad to know you are, because you did cook dinner last night, and I wanted to make sure that meal was sanitary."

"It was, Jake, I made sure of that. Washed my hands before I did it. Speaking of, how was that casserole? It's a recipe my great-grandmother knew. She was one of the best chefs I've ever known. What did you think?"

"Pretty good! I'm sort of envious that you have a stove at your house and I don't, but it was pretty nice of you to bring it over and share it! I figured I'd have to order a pizza, but thanks to you, I was able to save my money. I'm impressed by your skills."

"Thanks. I've learned a lot from my family. As well as that, I've learned a thing or two from nature itself."

"What's that?"

Jeffrey smiled. "Ah, ah, ah. A great chef never reveals his secrets."

Both Jake and Jeffrey laughed heartily at this joke.

"Good one, Jeffrey. But, it's fine, you don't have to tell me. I just wanna make sure all the food we eat is good. I don't want to have to spend more time on the toilet then I'd like to."

"Understandable." Jeffrey paused for a moment. "Um, since I'm here, I'd like to mention something. I was passing through the area on my way to the store to get some groceries last night, and I saw the neighbor doing something across the street...more accurately, I saw him installing a new fence. You're going to want to see this."

"Huh?" Jake stuttered as Jeffrey pointed out the bathroom window. Jake saw that, across the street, the entire wooden fence had been replaced with a black-colored iron fence in its place. "Woah! And this happened overnight?! But...I don't see what the difference is besides the fence being more reinforced."

"Well...I do have an idea on what it is, but...if it turns out to be true, this could turn out to be a hard job."

"Wait, you don't mean-?"

"Yes, I do."

"Uh, well then, let's go outside and discuss our options. I think it's time we get back into our plans to break into the neighbor's house."

"Will do."

They headed out of the bathroom, through the foyer, and onto the front porch. The neighbor's house was still there, across the street, but Jake also remembered that second house from yesterday, and he looked to his left. He could see the house from here, further down the street.

"You know, I've been thinking...maybe we should ignore the neighbor's main house for now." Jake suggested, pointing down the street at the second house. "That second house seems like it's worth having a look into."

Jeffrey shrugged. "I mean, we can do that, but I think we should go over and inspect that new fence first before we head over to the second house."

"Maybe, maybe. I'm set on going to that second house, though. It might have some secrets in it that can help us find the missing people. That basement hasn't been easy to get into, so if we can find something that can help us, that'll be a big step forward."

"Hmm...maybe we should explore that later, I dunno. I mean, our main point was to look into the neighbor's main house, right? I think we should check the security and go from there."

"Right, okay." Jake squinted over at the neighbor's house, looking for the neighbor before he went on. He could see the neighbor passing by one of the house windows. "Okay, I think the neighbor's in the kitchen right now, distracted. Let's go."

They made their way to the neighbor's house, going down the pathway, across the street, and over to the fence. They looked at it for a moment.

"So, should I touch it or should you?" Jake asked Jeffrey.

"Well-" Jeffrey began, but something interrupted.

Right next to them, a small rabbit, tall enough to reach Jake's ankles, skittered up to the fence. It looked at the fence very intently, raised a paw, and touched the fence. Jake and Jeffrey jumped as an earsplitting _BZZT _noise played, and the rabbit shrieked, bringing its paw away from the fence and skittering off down the street.

"Oh no." Jake muttered.

"Oh boy." Jeffrey sighed.

"You know what that is now, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Electric fence?"

"Electric fence."

This made Jake groan internally. Not only had the fence been made more secure by having it be made of metal, but now it was electric, and would zap them if they weren't careful enough around it. Jeffrey was right; the neighbor was way too smart. Thanks to their failures, he had made his house even more secure than ever before.

But Jake didn't have much time to dwell on this, because a familiar _thump _sounded within the neighbor's house, and he and Jeffrey both knew what that meant: _Hide before the neighbor comes out and sees them._

Without any time to lose, both teens turned tail and rushed back across the street as fast as they could, scrambling behind one of the bushes in Jake's front yard as the neighbor's front doors flew open, and the neighbor himself stepped out.

"Alright, who is it this time?!" The neighbor yelled, looking annoyed. "Was it those stupid rabbits? Or those odd teens?! Whoever it was, come out!"

The neighbor stepped onto his front lawn and observed his electric fence closely, walking up and down the perimeter, carefully looking and observing every inch of the fence. Then he opened his gate and surveyed the other side of the fence, his head snapping from side to side as he looked for the source of whatever had touched his fence.

After a few minutes, with a look of dissatisfaction on his face, the neighbor bent down by the fence and started to adjust something.

"I'd better adjust the voltage on this damn fence," He growled as he worked. "Or else something is going to get past this, too. Hopefully I can catch the wild animal who decided to mess with this, because once I do, they're going to pay."

After a minute, he stood up and walked into his house, slamming his gate and his front doors behind him.

"Yeesh, I'm glad we didn't touch the fence." Jeffrey said to Jake quietly. "If we had-"

"Then we would've had so much electricity pumped through us that we would've been roasted like a pig on a Christmas fire." Jake finished, putting a hand to his face.

"And now he has an electric fence, making our job even more difficult then before. Just our luck."

"He's probably had the money and resources to buy something like this for a while now, hasn't he?"

"Yeah, just about. Now, I think we should do what I wanted to do and go to that second house."

"This time, I agree. If there's something in there that can help us get past that electric fence, we'll need it. As well as that, he might have other things of note in there."

"He's got to have something in there, right? He's been going there almost every day. Whatever it is that's in there, it has to be important. Let's go look."

The two of them started down the street towards the second house.

* * *

Jake could see the second house right across the street from where he and Jeffrey where. He was ready to go in there, to investigate what was inside and find more evidence of the neighbor's crimes. But before he could even think on it enough, he suddenly heard whistling, and he looked and saw the neighbor, running down the street on the other side of the street, heading towards the second house.

_Dang, if he goes into the second house, then we won't be able to get inside!_ Jake cursed in his thoughts. But instead of going straight into the second house, the neighbor ran and made his way behind the second house, running around to the back and disappearing from view.

"He's not going directly into the house, good." Jake muttered to Jeffrey. "This is our chance to sneak inside."

"Alright, then let's do it." Jeffrey agreed. "I'll go first."

Jeffrey headed across the street, keeping a watchful eye on the sides of the house in case the neighbor came, then made it. He waved at Jake, offering Jake to cross the street as well

Jake did feel reluctant to cross, since he would be putting himself in danger again, but he had to do what he had to. So he ran as fast as he could, quickly getting across the road and over to the front lawn of the second house. Then, walking up to the front doors of the second house, he fingered the handle and pulled it open. Surprisingly to him, the door came open. The neighbor apparently hadn't bothered to lock the doors.

Taking the chance he had, he snuck into the foyer of the second house. Jeffrey quickly followed inside and shut the door quietly behind them.

"We're in. Let's look around, I guess." Jake decided, and he turned to look around.

The foyer was relatively small, with it stretching towards two windows on either side of the front doors that looked out into the front lawn. Red curtains were shoved over the windows, which blocked the view of anyone looking inside. There was nothing much in there that passed as furniture besides a brown armchair on one side of the room and a small wooden table and wooden chair on the other. Dust was clinging the curtains like there was no tomorrow, and cobwebs lined and were stuck to various parts of the wooden ceiling. A couple of small black spiders were skittering along their webs, minding their own business in the quiet of the home. The walls and ceiling were both wooden, of course, but the floor was made of brown carpet, which also was speckled with dust, as well as tiny scraps of paper littered about the floor. Jake even spotted what looked like a few small brown objects in the corner of the room. What the objects were, he couldn't really tell at the moment. He was much more interested at the other aspects of the room.

"There's cobwebs everywhere here." Jake noticed, watching as one of the small spiders skittered along one of the webs, going in circles over and over. "The neighbor doesn't even seem like he bothered to clear out the spiders."

"And there's dust everywhere, too. These curtains look like they haven't been touched for weeks." Jeffrey noted, grabbing hold of one of the curtains, fingering it observantly, then letting it go. Dust was now clinging to Jeffrey's fingers. Jeffrey wiped it off in disgust, and the dust fell to the floor and blended in with the dust already sitting on the carpet flooring.

"I know, there's so much everywhere, and I...I...- ACH-OOO!" Jake suddenly could feel a sneeze rising to his nose, and he quickly put his arm up to his mouth. "Woah! Sorry, just have minor allergies to dust in amounts as large as these."

"Yeah, Gesundheit."

"Well, anyway, this place looks pretty barebones and pretty dirty, too. If the neighbor really has been doing stuff in here, then he must've been careful not to touch most parts of the house. This room looks like it hasn't been lived in for a long while."

"Let's keep looking and see what else we can find."

"Roger."

Right up ahead, across from the front doors, was a hallway. At the end of the hallway was random junk piled up, such as wooden crates and unused dressers. There were also two doors in the hallway: one on the left, and one on the right. Jake went down the hallway and opened the right door, peeking inside the room.

This room was much more decrepit then the foyer. The lightbulb illuminating the room was flickering feebly. The carpet flooring had several holes, rips, and tears in it. More cobwebs were stuck in the corners of the room. More crates were piled up at the far side corners of the room, surrounding a wooden dresser whose drawers had been left open. From where he stood, Jake could see that the drawers were completely empty of any sort of clothes or knickknacks. Another wooden chair was leaning against the wall, covered in its own layer of dust.

Jake looked around at all of this, but it didn't look like anything interesting or noteworthy was in this room, so he decided to close the door and turn around to face the right door instead. Jeffrey was already at the right door, opening it up and peering inside. There was a very small hallway which opened up to a room around the corner and to the right. Jeffrey and Jake went inside the room and around the corner, peering into the room inside.

This room was the only room which looked slightly okay. Though the carpet still had holes in it, the dust on the carpet has been swept off, there were no traces of spiderwebs in the entire room, and the furniture here, which amounted to another small wooden chair, a brown couch sitting against the far wall, and a black lamp next to it, was also very neat and tidy, and did look comfortable enough.

But that wasn't all, and as they noticed what else was there, Jake and Jeffrey gasped in surprise.

There, inside the room, sitting inside a small cat house and chowing down on cat food in a white-black metal bowl with a cat design, was a tabby cat with green eyes and a white underbelly, paws, and white fur as well on the tip of the tail. He looked very pleased with himself. As Jake saw this, he also noticed that there was a 6-level, grey-colored cat tree, which looked recently used.

"A kitty! Wow!" Jake exclaimed, smiling at the sight. He always had like cats; his grandmother always used to have a house full of cats, and Jake had always found enjoyment stroking every single one of them on visits there. Jake walked over to the cat, sticking out of the cat house, and sat down. "Hi there!"

The cat, which had finished the food in its bowl, looked right up at Jake. It didn't seem very alarmed, but looked rather pleased to see Jake, and it made something of a smile and let out a soft _meow_.

Jake laughed as he saw this and stroked the kitty gently, pleasing the cat even further as he moved to make it easier for Jake to stroke him. As Jake did so, he noticed that the cat had a collar on with a nametag attached to it. He reached down and lifted the tag up to his eyes to see what the cat's name was.

_Jo-Jo_

So that was the cat's name. As Jake noticed this, he also turned and looked at the cat bowl. The same name, Jo-Jo, had been painted onto the side of it.

"So the cat's name is Jo-Jo?" Jake wondered, as when he saw the cat perk up softly and look up at him again, he took that as a yes. "Woah. I'm kinda shocked that this is what we found here, Jeffrey. I didn't expect to find a cat just...here."

"Neither did I." Jeffrey muttered, also looking perplexed. "Of all the things to find in here...I wonder what we should do. If this cat belongs to the neighbor, I think we maybe should be careful to treat it right."

"Of course. It seems pretty tame. Hi there, Jo-Jo!" The cat let out another soft meow. "Aww, he's pretty cute! I can't get enough of him."

"He is adorable, yeah." Jeffrey grinned and began to stroke the cat himself. The cat purred gently. "Aww, thanks for being here, little guy. Huh, but I do wonder...if he's been here, inside this house...maybe, just maybe, he saw something and knows of something hidden in here. Hey, Jo-Jo, we're trying to look for something like a page. Seen anything like that?"

Neither Jake nor Jeffrey expected the cat to understand, so they were understandably flabbergasted to see the cat nod its head and meow again. Then, the cat got up, crawled out of its house, and started to head towards the exit to the room. Jake and Jeffrey looked at each other, nodded, then followed behind the cat.

They had left the doors open, so the cat headed out of the room and back into the hall. He put a paw to the right door, which Jake had peered through earlier, looked around at Jake and Jeffrey, and meow-ed again.

"In here?" Jeffrey asked the cat, and it nodded again. "Oh, uh, alright." He opened the door, and the group went into the room. The cat walked, stopped at the center of the room, and nudged its head towards the dresser Jake had seen earlier. Jake, curious, walked over to it. The drawers were still opened up and empty...except for the top right one, which had a page that looked like it had been ripped out of a book in it. A journal entry!

"Woah, I found another journal entry!" Jake exclaimed, grabbing the page. "This one is labeled as 'Journal Entry No. 13'!"

"Oh, cool! Let me read it this time." Jeffrey offered, and he took the page from Jake and looked down at it. He looked confused. He squinted down at the paper, then winced a little. "Dang, this one's a little more difficult to decipher. It looks like it was written in pen, but then it was smudged by accident."

"Well, try your best to make out what's said on it, okay? And try not to ad-lib it too much."

"Alright, alright, let's see here..."

_Journal Entry No. 13_

_Things have been rough lately. It's still been getting stronger all the time, I can feel it. Thankfully, today I managed to subdue him a bit more. That should hold him back for the time being..._

_Ever since I took care of those interlopers, I've been using one of their houses to accomplish my goals and to achieve what must be done. The rabbits keep trying to break into here. I swear, those things don't act like normal rabbits...but they keep trying to get in here. _

_I've gotten myself a cat and forced it to keep watch, which should deter the rabbits from entering here any more. The cat doesn't seem to like me, but I can't be worried about that. I've got to make sure he stays here and keeps watch over the place. _

_I'm allergic to damn cats, anyway, so it's not like I wanted our relationship to be good._

_In the meantime, I need to get back to work. Soon enough, I'll get what I need..._

"He's been using the cat to guard this place?" Jake wondered. "Strange. Why a cat and not a dog? A dog would be a lot better at protecting places...not that I'm complaining." Jake smiled and bent down, stroking Jo-Jo some more. The cat purred happily. "I mean, it does seem like the cat has been effective at warding off the invaders into this place, so I guess it was a victory for him anyway."

"We can only guess, but an assumption like that isn't out of the question." Jeffrey agreed, nodding. "If he had tried a dog and failed, a cat could've been his next course of action. Anyway, though...Jo-Jo, do you like having your master around?"

Jo-Jo, instead of purring softly, glared sharply, letting out a low hiss, and the hair on its back stood up straight.

"Yeah, I think we can take that as a no." Jake decided, and he stroked Jo-Jo a bit more. The cat stopped hissing and began to purr again. "I think he likes us a lot more than he likes the neighbor. It doesn't seem like the neighbor has been treating Jo-Jo very nicely..."

"Let's take him with us." Jeffrey said, grinning, and very sure of himself. "He'll be much happier with us."

Jake grimaced a bit. "Are you sure? I don't think the neighbor would be too chuffed if we took his cat."

"Jake, it doesn't matter how the neighbor thinks of this. This would be for the better. We'd be giving Jo-Jo a better home. Besides, the neighbor's apparently allergic to cats, so he could do without one."

"I guess you're right...anyway, if we're going to leave and take him with us, we should take one last look to see what else we can find. There were piles of stuff over at the end of that hallway. He might have something over there."

"Right, let's go look. Come on, Jo-Jo!"

Jake, Jeffrey, and Jo-Jo the cat trekked out of the room and back into the hallway, where they went right over to the piles of crates and furniture at the end of the hallway, which Jake had seen earlier. They began to look through the crates and dressers, but there was nothing of note. Jake looked over at the left of the hallway wall, and he noticed an ugly painting of something he couldn't identify, hanging there on the wall. Confused, he looked closer at it, and gave it a prod. The painting suddenly slipped off of the wall...revealing a hole with a lever inside.

"Oh. Oh my god." Jake exclaimed. "Jeffrey, I found something."

"What is it?" Jeffrey asked, coming over and looking over Jake's shoulder. "A...lever? What does that do?"

"I don't know, but if it leads to somewhere secret, then let's find out what will happen if we flick it." Jake reached over and pulled the lever downward, and a loud click sounded.

Out of nowhere, the piles of crates and furniture moved aside slowly, and Jake could feel the ground trembling underneath him. On instinct, he leapt back. Jo-Jo, looking alarmed, did the same. However, before Jeffrey could question this, the carpet underneath him suddenly opened up.

"WAAAUUUGHHH!" Jeffrey screamed, and Jake watched in horror as he fell down a hole underneath the floor. A few seconds later, Jake could hear a _splash_, and he looked down the hole to see what happened. The hole was considerably deep and long, and it was tiled with white metal instead of wood. Groves had been put into the sides of the hole. Down at the bottom, Jake could see Jeffrey scrambling out of a pool of water.

"Holy heck!" Jake yelped. "Jeffrey! Hey! Are you okay down there?!"

"...yeah, I'm alright. Oof. Ouch." Jeffrey's voice responded as Jake watched him climb out of the pool and out of sight of where Jake could see him. "I'm all good, and...and...oh. Oh my god. Holy moly."

"What?! What is it?"

"There's an area down here!"

"Huh?"

"You heard me! It's like some...underground hallway! Looks like...a lab?"

"A lab?"

Just as they mentioned it, Jake suddenly heard something behind him. He turned and saw that the doorknob of the front doors was starting to jiggle. The neighbor was coming into the house at that very moment.

Jo-Jo, looking frightened and angry, let out another loud hiss, then glanced down the hole Jeffrey had fallen down...and, after this moment's hesitation, jumped down into the hole.

"Jo-Jo!" Jake exclaimed, watching as the cat landed down into the pool below. He could see Jeffrey scooping him up.

"Jo-Jo! Geez, be more careful next time!" He could hear Jeffrey say.

"Wait! What do I do now?!" Jake yelled out. The doorknob was still being jiggled, and Jake was afraid that the neighbor would come in any second. He looked down into the hole. Was he supposed to jump? Where did he go now? He didn't want to jump down a mysterious hole, but if he didn't, he'd be caught again. With few options, Jake glanced at the hole, swallowed deeply, then jumped upward and leapt down into the hole.

He screamed for a moment as he fell down, going past the groves of the hole...then he landed into a pool of water, which promptly broke his fall. Despite this, a dull pain traveled up his legs, and he winced.

"Woah! You're here!" Jake saw Jeffrey running towards him, and Jeffrey came over and grabbed Jake by the arm, helping him climb out of the water. "That was a long fall. Are you okay?"

"Ouch." Jake winced, his legs aching a bit. "I was not fully prepared to jump down. I should've been more careful."

"Well, you're alright, so that's all that matters."

Jo-Jo walked up to Jake and snuggled him a little, calming Jake down as he smiled and stroked the loving cat.

However, while all this happened, Jake heard a door coming open at the top of the hole.

"Alright, I'm here!" He could hear the neighbor call. "Come on out, Jo-Jo. Make this easy for me, and I might make it easy for you!"

"He's here." Jake sighed. "Of course he has to come in while we're still here...thank goodness I fell down here before he came in, but...he's looking for his cat, isn't he? And we've got him with us..."

"Ugh, dang it." Jeffrey groaned. "Well, he followed me down here. Let's just hope the neighbor doesn't come down here himself."

"Alright, Jo-Jo, you know I don't have the patience for this!" They heard the neighbor call, much more roughly. "Show yourself, or I'm not going to give you any food today!"

"He's still looking." Jake said. "I wonder why Jo-Jo followed us, though." Jake looked down at the cat nuzzling his leg. "Why'd you follow us down here, Jo-Jo?"

Jo-Jo just kept snuggling Jake's leg, but Jeffrey responded for Jake.

"Well...I think he likes us more than the neighbor. Maybe to the point of wanting to be with us instead of him." Jeffrey replied. "And besides...I actually have tuna in my pockets today." Jeffrey pulled out a can of tuna from one of his pants pockets. "I've been carrying it around in case I get hungry. I think Jo-Jo may have also smelled food on me. Want any?"

"No, thank you. I'm not very hungry right now." Jake refused as politely as he could, and Jeffrey nodded respectfully and put the tuna can back into his pocket. "I guess that's one of the reasons why the cat likes us, though. Anyway, we need to get out of here." Jake peered up at the top of the hole. "The hole's still open, so once the neighbor leaves, we can climb back up. There's groves in the wall, so we can use those to get a foothold."

"Hey, wait a second!" They heard the neighbor shout as soon as Jake finished speaking. He sounded outraged. "What the hell?! Jo-Jo, did you open the passage again?! I told you, you damn cat: This passage is only for ME to use during emergencies! Do you WANT something to break in here and steal my things? Oh, that's it. When I find you, I'm going to have to teach you a lesson you won't forget!"

And, just as he said that, they could hear the flicking of the lever, and the hole closed itself up from the top.

"Oh, come ON!" Jake complained. "Of course this has to happen! Of course he has to go and close us in here!"

"Looks like we're not getting out that way." Jeffrey added. "We'll have to find another route."

"But where do we go-" Jake began, but as he turned and looked at the area he, Jeffrey, and Jo-Jo were down inside, he suddenly came to a realization about where exactly he was.

They were down in a corridor, made of white, shiny metal. The area was illuminated by bright lights coming from the walls and ceiling, which shined behind blue glass windows. Along the corridor ahead, he could see some doorways along the left and right sides of it. The whole area had a very different feel compared to the wooden structures of the homes they had been in before. This place felt more scientific, more advanced and technological.

"We're in a corridor?" Jake uttered, taken back. "This place looks so odd, though. Nothing but metal, and no wood in sight. Pretty different from what we've seen so far...well, this is a pretty bad situation, anyway. We've now taken the neighbor's cat with us, and I think that's just going to give him a reason to hit us harder than before."

"Don't be so down, Jake." Jeffrey replied. "We'll get out of here. We'll do what needs to be done."

"You always say that, though, and then we find ourselves in worse and worse situations." Jake said this, with anger rising in his voice. He was stuck down in some bad place, stuck with the possible outcome of the man he was investigating coming down harder and harder on him, and all the while Jeffrey was always saying they'd get through. But had they even made any significant progress yet? Jake was starting to question why he even bothered doing this. He was putting his life at risk...for what? The possibility of them being heroes? Was it even worth it at this point?! "Maybe you're seeing this the wrong way. Maybe this is all completely HOPELESS!"

Jake shouted the last word, causing an echo through the corridor and startling Jeffrey, who looked shocked to see his friend acting this way.

"What are you saying, Jake?!" Jeffrey exclaimed. "It's not hopeless until we decide to give it all up! Sure, we've had some trouble, but that doesn't mean this is impossible!"

"Well, what if it IS?! What if we're wasting our time here?! What if all this just leads us to something terrible?! What if we die for good?! What if we get captured and never see the light of day again?! And all the while, I'm out here breaking my back and risking my life so we can chase after this random guy who may or may not keep people in his basement! I'm tired of this! I'm sick and tired of ALL of this! I didn't even want this to begin with!"

"I didn't want this either, Jake! You think I ASKED for the neighbor to come and turn my hometown into the most miserable place on earth?! Do you think I wanted him to make our home like this so I could venture into his home and try to find the missing people?! No, of course not! But it happened anyway, so I dealt with it and I took action!"

"Well, I've been taking more action then you! I had the crowbar, and if we hadn't lost it to the neighbor, we could've used it to get out of here!"

"If WE had gone with my plan and just invaded the main house to begin with, then we wouldn't be stuck in here in the FIRST place!"

They both paused yelling at each other, and they took deep breaths in and out, huffing and puffing in complete silence. Jo-Jo had backed away and was watching them from afar, looking worried and scared.

After a minute of silence, Jeffrey let out a deep long sigh, his angry expression fading, and his shoulders sagging.

"You know...I understand if you're tired of this." He muttered quietly. "I am too. I wish I could lead a normal life. But...I have to do this. If I don't step up and be a hero, who will? Who will bring this town back to its past state of happiness? So...I'm going to continue forward and keep going with this. And...and if you don't want to be a part of that...that's fine. Just go home and go back to your normal life. I'll do everything myself-"

"Wait...I..." Jake interrupted. He was looking at the defeated expression of Jeffrey's face, of his new friend who had persevered through everything so far, who had stuck to all this and kept going. Now, he felt guilty. He felt like maybe he had flown off the handle too hard. Maybe he had overreacted. "I'm sorry, Jeffrey. I'm just so sick of stuff like this happening. I only want things to get better. I don't want to quit this. Not yet."

"So you'll keep going?" Jeffrey said this without turning around.

"Yeah...I...I guess I will. There's still hope. There has to be."

"Jake."

They paused for a moment. Then Jeffrey turned around, and Jake could see he was smiling.

"Thank you." He said. "I know things look dark, but...hey. Maybe this'll all be worth it."

Jake stayed silent for a moment, then smiled back and nodded. "Yeah, maybe it will."

Jo-Jo, looking very happy with this, let out a meow and ran up to them, nuzzling Jeffrey's leg.

"Heh, sorry, little guy." Jeffrey apologized, stroking Jo-Jo. "We're just a bit out of it. We're fine now."

"Yeah, we're okay. We can do this." Jake added. "So, Jeffrey, now that we're down here, what's our next move going to be?"

Jeffrey looked down the corridor. "Maybe we have to follow the corridor. That way, we can find our way out."

"Sounds like a plan. Are you ready for this?"

Jeffrey paused, then let out a dry chuckle. "No. I was never ready. Heh heh."

Jake chuckled too. "Yeah, neither was I."

"But hey, we've gotta get ready anyway, right?"

"Yeah, we do. Now...ready for real this time?"

"Ready."

"Alright, let's go."

And with a new spirit and determination in their minds, they looked down at the corridor they had to traverse one final time, then got moving, making their way further down in hopes of finding a new way through...


	6. Other Places, Part 3: The Laboratory

"Okay, Jeffrey, I think it goes without saying that we're REALLY in trouble this time! We're trapped down here in some corridor with no exit in sight, and worse yet, we have the neighbor's cat with us! Once he finds out that we took Jo-Jo away from him, we're probably going to end up like that skeleton we saw in the pit!"

"Wait, you mean the skeleton we saw down in that pit the neighbor used to trap us that one time? But I thought we deduced that it was a prop."

"...yeah, we did. And for your sake and mine, I'm hoping that's true."

Jake and Jeffrey were stuck together, down where they were. They had fallen down into a secret area underneath the neighbor's house, and now they were trapped, and without an exit within view. Jake could see the hole they had fallen down from where he was standing. He knew it was blocked off, so there was no way they could climb back up. Jo-Jo, the neighbor's cat which had been living there before Jake and Jeffrey had found him, was standing right by them, watching them with a curious look.

"Alright, it's time we get down to business." Jeffrey decided. "You can decide what the plan is, Jake."

"Great, because I know what we're going to have to do." Jake replied, and he pointed down the corridor. "Let's just follow the corridor and see where it goes, and hopefully along the way we can find another exit."

"Sounds like a plan. Lead the way, then."

Jake, Jeffrey, and Jo-Jo began to make their way down the corridor. Jake went over to the first doorway in the hall, which was on the left. Above the doorway was a sign labeled with the words: _Testing Room_. He went through it and peered into the room, and to his surprise, he could see some peculiar stuff in here: it was a small work room, with several tables carrying vials and medical tools, as well as a medical bed that was thankfully unoccupied.

"Woah! What in the heck is all this stuff?" Jake exclaimed, going over to look at the stuff on the tables. The vials and bottles on the tables were full of dangerous-looking and oddly-colored liquids, which seemed to be boiling inside their containers. Several bottles of pills were set down on another table, each labeled with different effects. One in particular caught Jake's eye: _Subduing pills: Administer 1-3 pills to bring subject to unconsciousness, allowing experiments to go uninterrupted. The amount of pills needed to be used will depend on the size of the subject in question. _On another table were some very nasty-looking tools, including a tray with two syringes on it, which had very sharp tips and contained a liquid similar to the ones that were in the vials.

"Oh my god." Jeffrey said, and he was gazing at all of the stuff with a wary look. "Subduing pills? Potions filled with weird liquid? Sharp syringes? A medical bed? And all of this was underneath the neighbor's second house. And the label on the pills uses the word 'experiments.' Does that mean...the neighbor was conducting experiments down here?"

"I don't doubt it, that's for sure. The potions certainly aren't drinks, the pills certainly aren't pez or some small candy, and the syringes definitely don't seem like any kind of dart game. This is the real deal."

"Hmm. You know, I think this might be useful. Let me take one of those."

Jeffrey grabbed one of the bottles of pills and examined it briefly before putting it into his jacket. "This is all some really weird stuff...well, anyway, let's keep going."

They left the room and continued down the corridor. As they went, Jake looked back at the hole they had fallen through from a distance.

"Man, I really wish the hole wasn't just blocked. We could've gotten out of here a lot faster." Jake wished out loud.

"Yeah, it definitely would have been less of a hassle had he not made things more complicated like this." Jeffrey agreed. "But he did say that hole entrance was for emergencies. If that's an emergency entrance or exit, then there must be another entrance into this place that he uses instead."

"Maybe. We won't know until we find out. Let's keep going."

"Alright. Come on now, Jo-Jo! Try to keep up!"

The tabby cat let out a meow of understanding and followed them as best as could, making sure to stay as close to them as possible as they kept going.

They headed for a doorway on the right side of the corridor, which was a little further down the corridor then the previous doorway they had looked through, with another sign above it reading: _Chemical Experimentation Chamber_. Jake peered into it to see an large table with a huge setup on it, where various potions were readied up to be mixed and poured into empty vials. Shelves of vials, each with different liquids inside, were put against the walls.

"This room looks as if it's used to create those odd potions we saw." Jeffrey guessed. "Looks recently used."

"This is crazy." Jake groaned. "What kind of stuff could he be making in here?"

Curious to find out the answer, Jake went over to one of the shelves. The potions were labeled from A to Z, with the A potions at the top right and the Z potions at the top left. Jake plucked a random one off the shelf filled with a bubbling black liquid and held it up the light, reading the label put on the bottle.

_Chemical Grade S-Codename: Serpentine_

_Primary use: When injected into subject, subject will enter a mindless and calm state, making them unaware to their surroundings and unable to think clearly. Use this to prevent subjects from escaping the confines of the controlled environment._

_Reminder: Regular injections every week are needed to keep effects applied. Bringing subject out of the range of a controlled environment may cause effects to wear off prematurely._

"What the heck?!" Jake exclaimed, flabbergasted. "The neighbor has potions in here that bring 'subjects' into mindless states. Why would he want to do that? Who are these subjects?"

"That doesn't sound good at all." Jeffrey voiced, sounding worried. "He must be doing things inside this area that he wanted to keep secret from the outside world. Chemicals that can do things like that certainly don't sound like something he'd want anyone else to know about. But that makes me wonder...if he's testing on things...who is he testing?"

"I'm not sure, but I guess we're going to find out soon enough."

Jake put the bottle back and grabbed another random one from the shelf.

_Chemical Grade E-Codename: Emerald_

_Primary use: When injected into subject, subject's muscles will be toned down, making them weaker and less capable then they normally are._

_Note: Use against subjects who display high levels of resistance. Too many injections may result in heart stoppage._

"Heart stoppage..." Jake muttered. "These chemicals seem pretty lethal, don't they?"

"They sound like stuff you would use if you were trying to keep someone contained." Jeffrey chimed in. "And what we've seen so far mentions 'subjects'. Does that mean he's keeping something...or someone...trapped in here, too?"

Jake didn't pursue the answer, but instead put the bottle back onto the shelf and decided to finally bring his attention away from the chemicals. He didn't want to think about what other kinds of things that could've been down there; for all he knew, they could be even worse than the ones he had seen already.

"Yeah, I think I've looked at enough of these things for one day." Jake stated. "Let's keep looking for an exit."

Jeffrey nodded understandingly, and he and Jake departed the room, heading back into the corridor. Jake was just about to start going further down the corridor when he heard a voice, calling from the hole. A familiar and unfriendly voice.

"Jo-Jo, where are you?!" The neighbor called from the top of the hole. "You damn cat! I've looked everywhere inside this house and you're nowhere to be found! Where the hell are you?"

Jo-Jo let out a loud hiss, streaking behind Jeffrey's legs and glaring at the hole angrily. It was obvious that the cat didn't like the neighbor being around.

"Jo-Jo, it's okay. Don't let him know you're here." Jake whispered to the cat. "We'll keep you safe."

"Alright, Jo-Jo, I'll cut you a deal. Come out now, and I'll give you the tuna you've been wanting." The neighbor shouted out. "It's want you want, isn't it? Make things easy for me, and you'll get a nice reward!"

Jo-Jo stopped hissing and froze. He looked very cautious, but also somewhat enticed by this offer. He began to step out from behind Jeffrey's legs, but stopped short, hissed again, and went back behind Jeffrey's legs.

"It's alright, Jo-Jo. He's probably just trying to trick you, right?" Jeffrey asked the cat, bending down and stroking Jo-Jo. Jo-Jo meowed in response and nodded. "Yeah, I thought so. Don't worry, okay? Just stay close to us and you'll be fine."

"Fine, then! If you're going to be so resistant, then we'll do this the hard way!" The neighbor growled. "I'm going to find you, you annoying little-!" A few seconds of silence followed, then- "Hey, wait a minute! My trapdoor down to the place was open...Jo-Jo, are you snooping around in my testing facility?! I told you that you're not allowed in there! I'm coming down there right now! If you break ANYTHING down there, I'm locking you in a box for a week!"

Jo-Jo suddenly looked scared, and with a frightened meow, he hid closer behind Jeffrey's leg. Meanwhile, Jake was startled to hear the noise of the trapdoor being opened, and seconds later, the neighbor had landed down in the water.

"Oh, god! We need to hide!" Jake exclaimed, and he, Jeffrey, and Jo-Jo turned and ran further down the hall. Going past a pillar in the middle of the hallway, they went over to two doors, one on the left labeled as _Cold Storage_ and the other on the right side of the hallway labeled as _Archives_.

Jake instinctively went through the left door, and found himself in another room. This room had several refrigerators and freezers along the back wall, as well as some tables put over in the corners. The room was very cold, and Jake already found being in there unpleasant, but he didn't have time to complain about such minor things when he needed to hide.

With quick thinking, Jake dived under one of the tables, and crouched low, keeping himself as quiet as possible. Jeffrey and Jo-Jo, who had followed Jake into the room, crawled under the other table, where Jeffrey sat down as silently as he could, stifling his breaths as he held Jo-Jo tight in his arms. The cat hid its face in Jeffrey's jacket, not wanting to look. All three of them stayed quiet as they listened to the neighbor. His footsteps were loudly sounding as he was heading down the hall himself.

"Alright, where could you be hiding?" He wondered gruffly. "Jo-Jo, you had better not be in the testing room! The equipment I keep in there is not to be touched!" More footsteps. "Hmm, not in here, are you? Good." Even more footsteps. "You're not in the Chemical Experimentation Chamber, are you?! I keep very integral chemicals in there! If you mess with them..." A few more footsteps. "Hmph, not in here either. You're asking for trouble, Jo-Jo. I warned you against messing with my things, you idiot, and here you are! You're going to pay dearly for this when I find you!"

The neighbor went silent for a moment, as if expecting Jo-Jo to suddenly appear and run over to him. When this did not happen, he let out a sigh and continued speaking.

"That cat, I swear...well, as long as I'm here, I'd better finish up the latest sample. It'll need a good finishing touch before it's stable enough to use. Thankfully, I know just what to do..."

Jake could hear some clinking and clattering nearby for a minute. After it came to a stop, the neighbor spoke up again.

"There we go, perfect. It should be ready for use in 24 hours. And I've got to remember to get to work on making some stronger pills. They've done good work, but they're getting less effective every day. I'll need more reliable versions if I want to continue research." Footsteps. "Now, back to business. Jo-Jo, you'd better come out now!"

More footsteps. They were getting louder and louder and louder...and then, the neighbor himself walked into the room. Thanks to Jake and Jeffrey being under the tables, he hadn't noticed them...yet. Jake held his breath, hoping and praying that the neighbor wouldn't think to look under the tables.

"I almost forgot." The neighbor was saying as he came in and opened one of the fridges up. "I should grab a saucer of milk, just in case. Maybe it can help me lure that stupid cat out into the open." He reached into the fridge and took out a small metal saucer and a tiny bottle of milk. He quickly poured the milk right into the saucer, filling it up a good amount, before putting back the bottle and closing the fridge up, then turning around and leaving the room, saucer in hand, and speaking as he went. "I had better replace those refrigerators soon. They're nearly too old to be usable in the current day and age, and I'll need the right tech at hand if I want to keep this place running."

He left the room, and his footsteps were growing less loud as he went to another area of the hall. They heard a sound as the neighbor spoke up again. "I'll just place the saucer right here. That's bound to entice him."

Finally, after a second, Jake, Jeffrey, and Jo-Jo crawled out from underneath the tables and peeked their heads out to see what was going on. The neighbor was going further down the hallway, past the Cold Storage and Archives and another pillar, and going in the direction of a metal set of doors and a turning point where the hallway turned to the right and continued on. Jake, now that he had noticed the metal doors, could recognize a soft banging coming from them. The neighbor seemed to have noticed this, too, because he headed over to the metal doors and began to yell.

"HEY! Quiet down in there, rabbits!" He barked. "If I hear one more noise out of you, I'll make sure that this'll be your last day alive!" The banging stopped abruptly, and the neighbor gave a satisfied smirk. "Good, you can understand orders. Let's keep it that way." He turned away from the door and headed to the right, going out of sight.

"What the heck? Rabbits?" Jake wondered. "Is he keeping something in that room behind those secure-looking doors?"

"I'm willing to bet he is." Jeffrey agreed, squinting. "Wouldn't put it past him to keep more hostages down in this place, especially in a place like this."

Now that the neighbor had gone to the right, he wasn't in their line of sight any more. Jake wanted to keep him in view, so he started down the hallway and over to the corner, peering over at the area of the hallway the neighbor had gone down. This section of the hallway had no rooms on either side of it, but two more pillars were in the way over to what seemed to be a ladder at the end of the hallway, which went up another hole.

"Hey, look at that." Jake said, gesturing Jeffrey and Jo-Jo to come over, and they shuffled over and looked around the corner too. They kept their voices down so as not to attract the neighbor's attention. "There's a ladder over there. You think that might be the exit we were wondering about?"

"Looks like it." Jeffrey replied. "We'll have to wait for the neighbor to leave before we can try to make a break for it, though. He'll notice us if we go for the exit too soon."

"Sounds like a plan. Let's wait him out."

"Jo-Jo, did you go up there?" The neighbor called. "Just come out already! Stop making this so difficult! You know what'll happen if you keep this charade up!" He waited again, but when he got no response, he kept talking. "Well, I'm not giving up yet! I'm going to find you! Wait...I didn't check the archives, did I? He must be hiding in there!" He began to turn around.

Sensing danger, Jake, Jeffrey, and Jo-Jo quickly turned around and ran back into the Cold Storage, hiding behind the doorframe as the neighbor came around the corner and headed over and through the door to the archives, disappearing behind it. They heard him opening various things, something wooden by the sounds being made in there, as soon as he entered. "Come on, Jo-Jo, you're not in here, either? I was sure you might be in here, hiding in these lockers. Hmph, he's asking for trouble, that mongrel...at the very least, he didn't come in here and disorganize my research notes. I spent hours getting them sorted, and if he messes them up, then he'll really be in for it!"

There were sounds of things, supposedly lockers, being closed, and then the neighbor came out of the archives, heading back the way he had came. "Well, that damn cat is nowhere to be found in here. I might as well head back to the house and look harder." He went over to the same hole Jake and Jeffrey had fallen down, grabbed the grooves dug into the sides of the hole, and climbed upwards, going out of sight. A moment later, the trapdoor above closed back up with a loud snapping sound.

"Alright, he's finally gone!" Jake sighed in relief, breathing in and out to calm the nerves that had been working at overdrive for the entire time the neighbor had been down there with them. "God, that was a close one. I'm glad luck was on our side."

"Yeah, you can say that again." Jeffrey stated, grinning and patting Jo-Jo's back. Jo-Jo looked very pleased, and he was purring softly. "Jo-Jo was so worried. I'm glad things turned out okay. We needed some luck on our side, considering the circumstances we're in with this whole situation we've thrown ourselves into."

"True dat! Hey, give me a second. I want to check the archives and see if there's anything interesting in there."

"Go on. I'm going to give Jo-Jo some attention for a moment so he and I can calm down and relax."

Jake headed over the door to the archives and leaned through the doorway, checking the room quickly. There were a couple of rows of lockers in here, lined up neatly, with small gray benches beside them. All of them were locked up tight, meaning Jake wouldn't be able to check them for anything interesting. Disappointed but not discouraged, Jake concluded with looking into the archives and went back into the hall, going over to Jeffrey, who had sat down and was petting Jo-Jo with a smile on his face.

"So I checked it out, but I didn't find anything useful in there." Jake reported, pointing backwards at the door. "The neighbor did say he stored his research notes in the lockers, but they're all locked up tight, and I don't have anything to open them with. So, for now, the archives aren't important."

"Gotcha. Let's keep looking around this place." Jeffrey replied, standing up readily. Jo-Jo got up too, and with an excited meow, followed behind Jake and Jeffrey as they trekked down the hallway, arriving at the metal doors that the neighbor had been yelling at earlier. There were no windows on the doors, so Jake couldn't see into the room, but there was a small panel on the wall next to the doors. It had a small screen that was offline, some buttons, and a number pad on it. Jake, curious, went over and looked at the buttons. They were labeled _ON, OFF, _and _CONFIRM._ Jake pressed the ON button, and the screen flickered to life.

On the screen, Jake was shocked at what he could now see. The screen seemed to be connected to a camera set up inside the room beyond the metal doors, with the top right of the screen labeling the room as _Holding Room_. Through the footage, he could see a very odd-looking room: the walls were painted in blue and purple stripes, with the ceiling painted blue as if to represent a sky. The floor was made up of what looked to be some material resembling grass, though it was too flat to have any kind of grass sticking out of it.

And, all over the room, there were rabbits. White rabbits, brown rabbits, orange rabbits, rabbits with spots, even a few black rabbits. They were all sitting down in different spots around the room. Some were staring at each other as if talking, others were huddled in the corners of the room, silent to themselves, and still others were asleep on the floor. A select few rabbits were giving angry glares to the door, all looking determined and upset.

One rabbit suddenly ran forward and threw itself at the door, and Jake could hear a small _clang _come from the door as it made contact, but as he looked back at the door, he saw no dents or scratches visible on the surface. The rabbit, who had simply bounced off the door like a kid on a trampoline, looked frustrated as it fell to the floor in a clumsy manner. The other rabbits, who had watched their friend's failed attempt, gazed down at the frustrated rabbit with sympathy.

It was a surprisingly horrible thing to suddenly find out while coming down here, and as Jake gazed at the screen, at the hopeless situation the rabbits were in, he was astonished.

Jeffrey, who was also looking at the screen, looked equally as mortified at the sight. He had put a hand up to his mouth.

"Woah. Woah, woah, woah..." Jake muttered, taken aback by this revelation.

"Would you look at that..." Jeffrey mumbled quietly.

"It's a holding room...full of rabbits. So the neighbor wasn't kidding about their being rabbits in this room."

"Apparently not. And...actually...I think I remember these guys."

"Huh? You do?"

"Yeah, I do. Didn't you hear before? This town has a huge population of rabbits. They like to visit here every season, and a majority of them stay permanently after they first come here. They've been this town's most appreciated animal for decades, ever since the day this town was founded. They used to be the friendliest group of animals around, to tell the truth; it wasn't uncommon to see townsfolk give them carrots as appreciation for coming and staying in Hortonville. But, ever since the neighbor arrived, the rabbits have been on edge. They're snappier, more serious, and more aggressive than they ever have been before. They must've known that the neighbor was a dangerous person to have in this place.

"Since the neighbor arrived, me and the other residents saw the rabbits change their behavior; every single day, they would head to the neighbor's house in large groups and cause mayhem: the neighbor hasn't been able to sustain any kind of plant since he arrived, because the rabbits keep stealing the freshly-grown crops, uprooting the plants, tearing through the grass. Some even make it inside the house itself and cause damage. On one occasion, they managed to break several windows and steal half the food out of the neighbor's fridge.

"But here they are, a large collection of them, just sitting down here, trapped down in this place. The neighbor must've gotten sick of the rabbits and took matters into his own, didn't he?"

"It looks like it. He must have went and kidnapped every rabbit that invaded his house and put them down here. And now, here they are..."

"What a sight. Do you think we can get them out of there?"

"I don't know. Is there a way to get them out?"

"Let me see that panel."

Jake moved out of the way as Jeffrey leaned over the panel, inspected it for a moment, and pressed the Confirm button experimentally. A loud buzzing sound played for a second, and a small robotic voice came from the panel:

_"Access denied. If you wish to enter the room, please enter the set code into the number pad below."_

"Drat, it's locked by a keycode." Jake sighed. "And we don't know what the code happens to be, do we?"

"Yeah, definitely not. The neighbor must be the only one who knows that information." Jeffrey responded, shaking his head.

"Then we'll have to leave the rabbits in there until we can come back and rescue them..."

"I don't like this way either, but we'll have to do it. We can't save those guys without knowing how to get them out of there first. Let's just get out of this place first, and then we can figure out what to do. Alright?"

"Alright. Let's get to the exit. I think I saw the exit over there."

Jake pointed down to the turning point of the hall, where the hall continued to the right, passing by some more pillars and over to a ladder that was going up another hole. Based on everything they had seen so far, Jake assumed that this would be the only available way to escape this area. He and the others made their way over to the ladder. Jake, without a moment's hesitation, went first and started to climb up the ladder. Jeffrey followed suit, climbing the ladder with one hand while holding Jo-Jo in the other.

Jake climbed up a short way before he found himself facing the underneath of something wooden. Experimentally, he pushed against it, and it lifted upwards, revealing a room above them. He then hoisted himself up and climbed up into the room.

It looked like an ordinary room that might be in a house in some ways, but also quiet odd in others: the room itself looked fine enough, with white wallpaper that was slightly peeling in some areas and a wooden flooring. Crates were piled up in one of the corners of the room. A small desk and chair was shoved into another corner, looking abandoned and unused. But, most confusingly of all, there were two stone caskets in the room, one near the left wall and the other near the right wall, straight and lined up with the rest of the room. Stone covers were put over the caskets, covering whatever might be inside them, empty or not.

"Well, we're out, but...what the heck?" Jake questioned, gazing at the caskets. "Why are there caskets in this room?"

"More creepy stuff. Yikes." Jeffrey said as he climbed up into the room and let Jo-Jo down from his arms. "As for why they'd be in here, well...I'm hoping it's not because these caskets needed something inside of them."

"Eep! Yeah, that doesn't sound very good. Let's just hope he's a mortician or something, that's way more tame."

"Knowing him, he wouldn't be the kind of guy to hold tame jobs..."

"Okay, let's stop this conversation right here."

"Agreed. Let's look around."

There was a door right across the room from where the trapdoor they had went through. Jake stepped up and opened it, going through. He could see that they were in another house, with a hallway and front area similar to the one in the previous house. There was a spiral staircase to Jake's immediate left, going up to another floor, and to his right he could see the foyer of the house and the front door.

"Another house?!" Jake exclaimed. "How many houses does this guy have?!"

"Probably a lot, knowing him." Jeffrey groaned from behind Jake. "It didn't occur to me that he'd end up stealing multiple of his captured victims' houses, but it seems I was WAY wrong to think that. There's got to be more in here, right?"

"Yeah, there might end up being something...really...good...in..."

Jake's next sentence died at his throat, as he gazed at something he had seen right across from him. In the small hallway they were in, across from the door they had come through, there was another door with a large padlock on the handle. There were no windows on the door, but it was covered in scratches and other types of damage, and there was a message scrawled across the door as well:

_WARNING: HIGHLY DANGEROUS ROOM_

_ENTRY DENIED TO ALL BUT /-/-/-/-/-/-/_

_PRIVATE AREA, ELEMENTS MAY BE HARMFUL_

_STAY OUT! THAT MEANS YOU, INTRUDER_

"Um..." Jake muttered, gazing at the door. "Jeffrey? I think I might have found a possible hiding spot for the neighbor's secrets..."

"You have?" Jeffrey asked, looking round Jake's shoulder and seeing the door. "Holy crap...that door doesn't look very friendly. And it's pretty suspicious too, since it's telling us not to enter...which means-"

"That we're going to enter it and see what's in there, right?"

"You read my mind. If there's a captured person in there, or something worse, we need to go in there and find out. Remember why we're doing this."

"I remember! Let's see..." Jake grabbed the door handle, but it wouldn't budge. The padlock kept the door firmly locked and inaccessible to him. "The door's locked up tight. It looks like we'll need a key if we want to get in." Jake also gazed up at the writing on the door and noticed that, on the 'Entry denied to all but' sentence, the last word seemed to have been roughly scratched out. However, he had a feeling that he knew just who the door was talking about: the neighbor. He didn't mention it to Jeffrey, but he kept this information in his mind for later. "Yeah, we'll need a key." Was all he said next.

"Alright, then let's make that our search priority: the key to get into that door. It would also be handy to find anything else important around here. Let's keep an eye out." Jeffrey turned and looked at the staircase to their left. "There is a staircase over here. Let's go up and see what we can find."

Nodding in agreement, Jake followed Jeffrey up the spiral staircase, followed by Jo-Jo, who was diligently following them. The cat had no trouble going up the stairs; in fact, he seemed used it.

Once they reached the top of the staircase, the trio found themselves in, not a second floor, but a large, roomy attic. Crates and boxes were piled up everywhere Jake looked; some were tipped over, revealing misc. objects such as plushies and small toys. There were two large windows in the room, one on the left side and the other on the right, and the ceiling above seemed to the be the underside of the roof of the house they were in.

"Wow, there's quite a lot of stuff up here." Jeffrey noted, grinning.

"Yeah, I see that." Jake added. "Do you think he might keep anything good up here?"

"Only one way to find out: by looking through these piles of crates! If you find a key anywhere, let me know, alright? And, not just that, but something like a hacksaw or a hammer would be good too."

"Got it. Can you do the same to me if you find a key?"

"I'll make sure of it! Now, let's get looking."

They began to rummage through the piles of crates in the room. Jake went over to one, grabbed the top of it, and pulled. It came off quite easily, revealing its contents, free for Jake to inspect. As he checked through the crates, he found various things, but nothing noteworthy: books, figurines, power cords, posters, clothes hangers, duffel bags, dumbbells, one crate even had a spare vacuum inside it. The list went on and on as Jake kept searching, and he found so much that he was beginning to be convinced that if somebody named it, it was probably in one of the crates up here. That was just how much Jake found as he looked.

More of the crates contained completely worthless things. Some were filled with crumpled up piles of paper, burnt logs, broken dolls, and some were straight up empty save for spiderwebs and spiders on those webs, the spiders having taken up residence in the emptiness of the abandoned junk. Jake opened up one crate, only to slam it back shut, as he had seen a massive egg sac in it and knew that the spiders weren't just living here; they were reproducing here, too.

He was beginning to feel like this search was for nothing when he heard Jeffrey exclaim over by the corner of the room where he was. He was leaning over by one of the bigger stacks of crates, with Jo-Jo sitting on a crate nearby and watching Jeffrey with an air of pleasantness and patience.

"Jake, I found something over here!" He called. "Get over here, quick!"

Jake ran over to see what Jeffrey was talking about: Inside one of the crates was a box, though this one looked different: it was a grey-black color and looked much cleaner than the general dirtiness of the rest of the room. There was a small note taped to it, too. Jeffrey leaned into the crate and pulled out the box, holding it up so both him and Jake could see it better. Jake's eyes looked to the note, which read:

_Remember: This box contains the key I use for several doors in which I use to lock people out of my more important rooms. Remember to keep it in a hidden location, away from prying eyes: if somebody got this, they could cause a lot of trouble for me._

"Woah, wait a second!" Jake said, surprised to see this. "This note says that there's a key in here!"

"It does?!" Jeffrey exclaimed, looking at the note, reading it for a moment, and then brightening. "It does! Yes! Let me see!" Jeffrey opened up the box, and sure enough, fit neatly inside on a little cushion, was a shiny grey key. Jeffrey took it and gazed at it, looking happier than he had been in ages. "It really is...the basement key. Do you know what this means, Jake?"

"I do. We can finally get into his basement."

"Exactly. Man, I...I'm so happy we found this. I never thought we'd find this, but, here it is! With this, we can finally get into his basement and find those missing people! We're so close now!"

"I know, right?! We're on the road to finally figuring out where those missing people are, as well as figuring out just what's wrong with this neighbor guy!"

They both let out a cheer and shared an excited high-five. Finally, they had found something integral to the mission they had been going on for days. With this at hand, they would finally be able to get into the basement, which had been their long-awaited goal. Jake felt accomplished today, more than he ever had before now. After their brief celebration, Jake held out his hand.

"Hey, Jeffrey, can I hold onto that key?" Jake asked. "I want to keep it safe until it's time for us to use it."

"Sure, take it. Don't lose it, okay?" Jeffrey accepted, and he put the key into Jake's hand. "This key is very important. With this, we'll finally be able to save everyone."

"Yeah, I know, I'm thankful we're starting to get there! Anyway, since we've found this, I think we've made a great accomplishment today. Should we go home now?"

"Yes, I think we've done a good bit for one day. Let's just get home and relax."

They left the room, heading back down the spiral staircase and back down to the small hallway they had been in before. As they were walking through, heading towards the front door, Jake once again glanced at the creepy door from earlier, and stopped in his tracks.

"Jeffrey, wait." Jake told his friend, putting up a hand. Jeffrey turned and looked at Jake confusedly. "I've got a funny feeling, for some reason...this is just a feeling, but..." Jake looked down at the key he was holding. "...I think this key might unlock this door."

"What makes you say that, though?" Jeffrey asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know, I just...have a feeling that this key is the one. Can I try it out?"

Jeffrey shrugged. "Well, if you want to. If you can open that door, that would be pretty good."

"Alright, then, give me a moment."

Jake went over to the door and examined it further. He could see a keyhole right above the knob. Holding up the key, he lodged the key into the door's keyhole. It expected it not to cooperate, to just fail to do anything, but it was on the contrary: the key fit perfectly into the keyhole. Jake, momentarily stunned, slowly grabbed the doorknob and turned it. It was no longer locked.

Jeffrey looked surprised, too. He and Jake looked at each other momentarily, and then down at Jo-Jo, who too was looking wary. Then, preparing himself, Jake slowly tipped open the door. On the other side, he could see nothing but darkness. Squinting at it, he stepped inside the dark room. It was too dark to see anything. Jeffrey stepped inside too, looking around in hopes of seeing light, but could see nothing.

"Can you see anything in here?" Jeffrey groaned. "Because I can't."

"Nope, I can't see anything." Jake sighed. "Let me see if I can find a way to turn on the lights."

Jake pressed his hand up against the wall and felt around, looking for a light switch. He groped and groped around, but he felt nothing...except then, his hands felt something that seemed like a square in the wall. He pressed against it...and the wall sunk in.

Instantly, lights flickered on, but not the electronic kind: candles were flickering to life, and suddenly the room was engulfed with the dim yellowish light of candles. And then, Jake and Jeffrey gasped at what they saw.

The room had a horrifying look to it: blood was splattered along the walls, scratches were intended into the walls and floor, and there, in the center of the room, was a pentagram drawn in blood-red ink, and surrounded by the candles that had lit up the room. Between the candles and the pentagram was a small group of rabbits, bound and gagged with cloth tied around their mouths and their hands were tied behind their backs. They were wearing steel collars that were connected to chains hanging from the ceiling. And, in the middle of the pentagram, there was a small white pedestal with a black box on it, engraved in various blood-red symbols.

Most horrifyingly, there were rabbit skeletons chained to the wall, looking old and rotten and left there for ages. Their blank, empty eyes stared at the room before them like an emotionless husk.

"WHAT IN THE?!" Jake and Jeffrey screamed, and Jo-Jo let out a loud meow of terror and streaked out of the room.

"What is all this?!" Jake continued. "What in the world?! A pentagram...candles...and rabbits?!" Jake ran over to the rabbits. They didn't react to anything, but instead, they stared off into space, looking unaware of their surroundings, unaware of anything. It was as if they were in a coma and yet wide awake at the same time. Jake waved his hand in front of one of the rabbits' eyes, but the rabbit didn't react and continued to stare ahead as if Jake's hand was part of the wall.

"This...this is..." Jeffrey whispered. "This is horrible...I knew that guy was awful, but now...he's not just imprisoning these rabbits, he's doing...bad things to them..."

"Well, what are we doing, standing here?! We need to get them out of here!" Jake grabbed the chain around the rabbit's neck so he could take it off, but yelped and put his hands back. His hands had burned like they had been set on fire when he had touched the rabbit. Flabbergasted, he tried a different rabbit and got the same result.

"Jake, what's wrong?! Why aren't you freeing them?"

"I-I-I can't touch them! I feel like I'm getting burned every time I try!"

"What?! But how is that possible?!"

"I don't know! I don't know how any of this is even real! We...we need to get out of this room!"

"You're right! Run for it!" Jeffrey ran out of the room. Jake made to run after him, but he stopped suddenly. He was suddenly aware of something in this room that caused him to stop in his tracks. He could feel it...there was something here. Some other presence, inside this room. He looked around and realized that it was coming from the box. It was emanating with some sort of odd energy, with some odd power, something inhuman, something supernatural and unbelieveable.

He gazed at the box, and, suddenly, decided he needed to find out what this presence was. He started to approach the box. As he did, he could hear something...whispering. There were whispers, coming from inside the box. There was something inside there, something inside the box, something hidden...it wanted out...he could feel it...

Everything was gone from his mind. All thoughts of leaving were disappearing. All he could see was that box. All he could hear was the whispering, growing louder, growing more horrible. He needed to open the box, right now, right this second, or else terrible things would happen...all happiness would go away, all hope would be gone, everything would disappear, it was too horrible to bear...

His hand was up before he realized what he was doing. All he could do was glassily stare at the box as he reached towards it to lift it open-

"JAKE!"

Jake snapped out of his staring and suddenly realized everything again. He was inside this horrible room, and he wanted to leave, to get out. Jeffrey had ran back into the room, and, looking frightened, grabbed Jake's arm and pulled him, further out of the room. Jake made no move to resist, no move to back off.

When he had finally been yanked out of the room, he came to his senses. He looked at Jeffrey, who looked concerned and worried. The door to the room they had been in was closed now, Jeffrey had closed it as they he had dragged Jake out of there.

"Jake?" He asked. "Are you okay?"

Jake did not respond immediately. He was still reeling, still trying to process what just happened. He let out a deep sigh, and said: "Yeah. I'm fine. I just took a moment to look at something."

Jeffrey breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, if that's true, than good. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Don't worry, alright? I'm all good."

They gazed back at the door.

"What was that?" Jake wondered. "It looked demonic...like something evil. Something twisted."

"I don't know. I don't know what that was." Jeffrey replied. "But there are rabbits trapped in there. We know that now..."

"Yeah. Should we go back in there and save them?"

"No, no, not now. They might be in pain, but...this isn't a good time. We need to get out of here, fast."

"Right, right, of course. Let's just go home."

They headed over to the foyer, which looked similar to the one in the second house, and straight over to the front door. Jake took the initiative, grabbing the knob and attempting to turn it. However, the knob refused to turn all the way, shuddering a bit but not complying.

"Oh, cripes!" Jake cursed out loud, upset at something like this happening yet again.

"What happened?" Jeffrey asked confusedly.

"The doorknob's stuck! It won't turn correctly!"

"Huh?! Wait, wait, let me try that!" Jake stepped to the side as Jeffrey came over and tried to turn the doorknob too. "Arrgh! Hrrgh! Dang it, you're right."

"Great, of course this had to happen! Just when it looks like we can get home, things like this have to happen!"

"Well, that's just our luck. How could this possibly get any worse?"

"JO-JO!" A voice rang out from nowhere, all of the sudden. "Alright, you bratty little thing, I've search everywhere and I still haven't found you! That can only mean that you're here inside this house! You'd better be here, or the things I'll do to you-!"

Jake froze. That voice was strikingly familiar, and, in fact, he knew who it was right away. He could hear noises coming from the room with the caskets in it, the sounds of feet and hands hitting the rungs of a ladder. That could only mean one thing: the neighbor had arrived once again.

"Quick! Hide!" He whispered frantically to Jeffrey and Jo-Jo. They looked around the foyer, seeing where there was to hide...and they spotted one of the windows looking out into the front yard. It was surrounded by curtains; large, roomy curtains that stretched all the way to the floor. Jake didn't need to be Einstein to formulate a plan. "In here! Behind the curtains!"

Without a second to lose, everyone scrambled behind the curtain, and Jake hastily shoved it closed. They stood there, hidden together and closer together than Jake would've liked, as they waited for the neighbor to come in.

"Hey! The trapdoor into this house is open!" The neighbor called out from the casket room. "That means you're in here, Jo-Jo! I knew it! You can't hide from me now!"

They heard his footsteps as he quickly stomped into the hallway and out into the foyer. He looked around at everything, at the crates, the front door, and everything in between. His eyes fell on the curtains Jake, Jeffrey, and Jo-Jo were hiding in, and his eyes widened a little.

"Wait a second...those curtains look suspicious..." He grunted, scowling. "Jo-Jo, are you hiding in there? I'm onto your tricks."

He approached the curtain, foot by foot, step by step, with a sense of finality in his search for his guard cat. Jake held his breath, trying his best not to move. Jeffrey shut his eyes, hoping he would go away. But they both knew their efforts were fruitless: any second now, the neighbor would pull open the curtains and see them standing there, and what would he do then? Would he kidnap them like he had the others? Would he even kill them?

Jake could see the neighbor's shadow behind the curtain, reaching out, reaching over to grab the folds of the curtain and yank them open-

He braced himself for what was going to happen next...

...

...

...

...but the neighbor's hand stopped inches from the curtain as he faltered and suddenly looked as if he had remembered something.

"Wait a minute!" He called out. "What about...the room? Jo-Jo didn't go in there, did he? I need to check it!" He turned around and ran over to the door to the horrid room with the pentagram from earlier, opened it up, and disappeared inside.

"Phew." Jake sighed, shoving open the curtains. "That was a close one."

"Yeah, it was, but...he'll only be in there for a minute." Jeffrey assessed knowledgeably. "We need to act fast before we're caught."

"Okay, but what do we do?"

"I have a plan. I'm going to run over to that doorknob and hit it as hard as I can, which should fix it being stuck and allow us to get out of here. Once we get out the door, make a break for your house, and don't stop running, okay? I'll meet you there."

"What?! But that's risky! What if he hears us?!"

"There's no time to worry about that! It's now or never! GO!"

Jeffrey ran over to the door and punched the doorknob with as much force as he could muster. Sure enough, there was a loud sound, and when Jeffrey grabbed the doorknob and turned it, it did as it was supposed to. Wasting no time, he wrenched open the door and ran out. Jo-Jo, looking worried and caring, ran after Jeffrey out the door.

"Jeffrey! Wait!" Jake called, and he ran out the door as well. The house, which had white painted walls on the outside of it, was a considerable distance away from Sunset Road. There was a large grassy road between the house and the street, but it wasn't too far of a walk, and off in the distance, Jake could see his own home right across the street.

Ahead of him, Jeffrey and Jo-Jo were sprinting at top speed, heading straight for Jake's house. Jake, knowing he had to follow, started forward to catch up with them-

"YOU!" A voice roared from behind him. Jake whirled around and noticed that the neighbor had stepped out his front door, looking angered at seeing Jake there. 'I knew something wasn't right about this! You were in my other houses, were you? Do you really think you can come into there without me knowing?"

"It's for a just cause!" Jake yelled back. "I, uh, wasn't here! I'm getting out of here!"

"You know what?! You're not getting away from me this time! Get back here!"

Jake, knowing he had no time to waste, turned and sprinted like he had never sprinted before. He headed straight down the grassy road, running as fast as his legs could carry him. The neighbor gave chase at lightning fast speed, and he was sprinting after Jake. Jake knew he wouldn't be able to outrun the neighbor forever; he would have to make it to the house before he was truly safe.

Reaching the end of the grassy road, he crossed the street, heading diagonally across from where he was, and onto the sidewalk at the other side of the road. He passed by the fence surrounding his house, across his front yard, and onto his front porch. He stopped right there, panting from all that running, and chanced a glance back to see if he was still being chased.

The neighbor had stopped right at the fence opening, where the path up to the front porch began. He seemed ready to run after Jake, but he also looked reluctant, too.

"Alright, I'm at home!" Jake screamed at the neighbor, grinning. "You know you can't come over here! You don't have the right to!"

"Hmph. Fine." The neighbor grumbled in numb acceptance. "I'm not risking it, not this time...you're lucky you had enough time to run, boy, or I would've had you in my grasp. I'll let you go this time, but be warned..." He pointed a finger at Jake. "...if I see you in front of my house one more time, I'll make sure you never see the light again."

"Woah, woah, woah! I do NOT like the sound of that!" Jake exclaimed, and he backed up against the front door of his house, trying to put more distance between him and the neighbor.

The neighbor grinned. "Yeah, that's right. You'd better stay away." He turned around to leave, stopped, and then turned back, raising a finger. "Oh, and...one more thing. I know you must know about my cat, Jo-Jo, seeing as you went into those other houses. Well, you brat, I'm going to be watching you." He made an 'I'm watching you' gesture to symbolize this. "If I see you with my cat, I'll make sure to do horrible things to you. So...STAY OUT!"

Then, finally, he turned around and headed back across the street, went through the gate of his house, and went back inside the house itself. Jake watched him go, mouth ajar, before quickly turning around, opening his front door, and heading inside his own house.

Stepping into the foyer, he called for Jeffrey. He had wondered if Jeffrey had made it safely to the house. "Jeffrey! Hello! Are you here?"

"Yeah, I'm in here!" He heard Jeffrey's voice from the living room. "You're finally back! Get in here!"

Jake went into the living room to see Jeffrey sitting against the back wall, Jo-Jo laying down next to him. Both of them looked tired out, and most likely ready to sleep for a few long hours.

"There you are." Jeffrey greeted, looking concerned. "You certainly took your time. What took you so long? I was sure that you were right behind me."

Jake sighed. "I had a run-in with the neighbor."

"SAY WHAT?!" Jeffrey exclaimed loudly, standing bolt upright.

"Yeah, he saw me leaving the house. He chased after me all the way here, but I managed to get to the front porch before he could catch up. He wasn't able to get me."

"Are you serious?! He ran after you? Holy moly, I didn't know! I'm sorry I left you behind to deal with that, I was just convinced you were coming as fast as I was and-"

"Don't apologize, Jeffrey, it was my fault for not getting out of there fast enough. Still, though, it was a close call." Jake looked down at Jo-Jo and grimaced. "Although we might have gotten ourselves into a bit of trouble, bringing Jo-Jo."

Jeffrey raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I had a brief conversation with the neighbor when I got to safety on the front porch. He said that if he found Jo-Jo with us, inside our house...well...he'd do horrible things to us."

Jeffrey paused, looking down at his feet, then at Jo-Jo. Then he looked up at Jake with a determined look in his eyes. "I'm willing to take that risk. We just saved Jo-Jo from a cruel life with the neighbor. I'll be darned if I'm going to let the neighbor take him back. Besides..." He grabbed Jo-Jo and held him up. "...would YOU want to?"

Jake stared down at Jo-Jo, at the loving fact of the cat who had grown on him, and took him from Jeffrey's hands, stroking him gently. Then he answered. "No. Never. I'd never do that."

"That's what I like to hear! But, you know...that was certainly one of the more enlightening excursions we've gone on. Especially with...with...that room."

"Yeah, I still remember how that room looked. Man...well, if anything, this just boldens my resolve. Now I want to save those missing people even more."

"Great! I am too. We'll keep trying, and soon enough, everything will be back to normal."

"Definitely! So, on that note, did you find anything interesting while you were searching in those houses and the underground lab? I certainly didn't find anything of note. Well, except the key you gave me." Jake took out the key, which he had stored in his pocket. "Might as well keep this safe while we have it." He went over to the bedside table that had the tv on it and opened the drawer, placing the basement key next to the shed key and the journal entry they had collected. "So, did you?"

"Well, I found the basement key, but of course, I gave that to you. We covered that already. And...oh! That's right, I was meaning to tell you I found this, but I got caught up in the excitement of finding the basement key-"

And, from his pocket, he took out a piece of paper that looked ripped out of a book. At once, Jake knew that Jeffrey had come across another journal entry.

"Oh! Another journal entry!" Jake said, pleasantly surprised. "Good job finding it!"

"Thanks! Now, I'll go ahead and read it aloud. You just listen."

"Got it." Jake looked outside the window that looked out into his front yard as he listened to Jeffrey, and, across the street, he could see the neighbor looking around in his front yard, undoubtedly searching further for Jo-Jo. Jake quickly looked down to make sure Jo-Jo was still there, and he was. The cat had curled up on the couch for a relaxing nap. Taking note of this and making sure to keep Jo-Jo out of the neighbor's sight, Jake listened in as Jeffrey began to read.

"Huh, this page in particular looks rather poorly-handled." Jeffrey noted. "A few rips on the sides of it, and it's a bit crinkled. As well as that, some of the words on this entry are smudged again. I'll try my best to decode them."

_Journal Entry No. 21_

_I need to make a decision now. I've put some thought into this, and I think that I might have to move him into the basement. There, he can be away from prying eyes, and at my attention, free for me to keep him back, to keep him contained._

_The basement door will have to stay heavily fortified to prevent just anyone from entering in. I've put a number of defenses on it and hid the items necessary in different hidden locations around the areas I have in my control. With this done, anyone seeking to enter will not be able to do so. That way, I can continue with my plans for what I shall do next._

_And, to be doubly sure that nobody can penetrate the door, I have made sure to keep one of the items with me at all times: morning, afternoon, evening, and night. That way, nobody who hopes to enter the basement can do so without trying to get near me, and when that happens, I'll be able to stop them, as well as anyone else._

_With this in mind, the situation is all under my control..._

"This doesn't sound too good." Jeffrey said, grimacing. "He has one of the items we need to get through the door. We'll have to find a way to steal it from him when he's not looking."

"That'll be difficult. How do you think we'll be able to do it?"

"Well...I do have something that might help." He took out the subduing pills from his jacket. "These pills knock people out cold, right? They might work."

"Yeah, that would work! We can make him take one of those pills somehow, and then, when he falls asleep, we can take the item, or items, he has on him! that way, we'll have everything we need to get into the basement."

"Sounds like a plan. But, as for those other items...what could they be?"

"I'm not sure. We'll have to take another look at that basement door sometime and figure out for ourselves what it is we need. Not today, though, because I think the neighbor will be on guard now that he knows we were in his other houses."

"Not only that, but I think we've accomplished enough for one day. Finding the basement key is already a huge step in the right direction. So, for now, let's think about other stuff." Jeffrey looked over at Jo-Jo. "So, now that Jo-Jo lives with us, we'll have to buy him the things cats need."

"Of course! Let's discuss it right now. First of all, he'll need-"

And then the two of them sat down on the couch next to Jo-Jo and started a conversation on what they needed to get the cat, ready to pass the time doing ordinary things and take another shot at entering the neighbor's house tomorrow...


	7. Accidental Murder

"Huh. You know, seeing this almost makes me think we've went back in time or something."

"What do you mean, Jeffrey? It looks mostly the same as it did before. In fact, it looks even more...intense...out there. The fence got upgraded again, see? Man, it gets worse and worse every day."

Today was yet another day of Jake and Jeffrey working on their plans. They were looking through the windows in the front door of Jake's house, and looking out over at the neighbor's house to survey it and make out an infiltration plan. The house was more heavily fortified than ever before, as the neighbor had taken a new defense measure: the electric fence had been replaced by one made out of rigid steel bars that looked twice as difficult to pass through as the electric fence.

"Oh, I was just making a joke." Jeffrey replied to Jake. "I was talking about the moat."

Jake blinked. "Say what?"

"The moat! Didn't you see the moat surrounding the fence? I knew the neighbor was going to take some defensive measures, but this one surprised me a little."

"Wait..." Jake took a closer look at the house from where he was, and he noticed it: there was a small moat surrounding the fence that surrounded the house. It was filled with water, but not the pristine, clear kind. This one looked murky, dirty, like something you'd see straight out of a swamp. The moat wasn't too big, but it was wide enough to where Jake knew nobody would be able to jump across without falling into the moat first. "He actually made a moat out there? I didn't even notice!"

"Yeah, I only just saw it was there just now. What a strange thing to put around the fence."

Jake glanced back at the moat. "He wouldn't have any kind of creatures in that moat, would he?"

Jeffrey shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Even with his incredible capabilities, I don't think he'd want to put a creature in the moat. However...there definitely does seem to be something off about the moat. The water contained inside it looks pretty disgusting."

"Yeah, it does. I really don't want to have to touch that, because I'd probably have to spend hours cleaning off the stench."

"Me neither. You know, that reminds me...I was considering ways to try and expose the neighbor's crimes. The outside world doesn't know that the neighbor is as bad as he really is. Clever move on the neighbor's part. He's stopped any news from in this town from going anywhere outside. A few people tried to leave and spread the news, but they were kidnapped before they could leave the town. And nobody outside would expect anything big from a small town like this, so nobody has bothered to figure out what's happening here, nor have they tried to even come to the town."

"Sounds pretty bad. I mean, why don't we just get a camera or something? We could just take some pictures of what the neighbor is doing and show them to the police."

Jeffrey sighed. "Already tried that."

"And?"

"No good. One guy in town volunteered to deliver the pictures to the police. You can probably guess what happened next."

"He got kidnapped, didn't he?"

Jeffrey put his head in his hands. "That's right." He said, sounding very unhappy about it. "Man, I just...all this kidnapping just sickens me. How many innocent people are currently suffering because they've been trapped inside the neighbor's house, unable to leave?" He looked back up. "Well, I'm not sure, but that just makes me want to continue these plans even more. We have to get everyone out of the basement before we can contact law enforcement, because with more people around, we'll be able to make a proper plan to get in contact with them. People mostly got kidnapped because they tried to undermine the neighbor by themselves or with only a few other people, and numbers that small weren't enough. The townsfolk left in this town that haven't been kidnapped won't do it anymore, either, because they're too scared to try anything. I've tried to convince them to help, but they won't budge."

"Woah."

"Woah is right. However, if we can free everyone and assemble the entire town's population together, we can make a plan to expose the neighbor for his crimes. As capable as he is, I doubt he'd be able to stop a large group from trying to contact the police."

"That does sound like it would work. That's for the future, though. Right now, we need to figure out how to free those people in the neighbor's house."

"You're right, we do. I was thinking that we'd take another shot at entering the house today."

"Me too. But before we do...do you still have those pills that you took from the neighbor's underground lab?"

"Yeah, I've got them." Jeffrey reached into his jacket and pulled out the small container. "I think I see where you're going with this."

"Uh-huh. We need to sneak into the house-"

"-and find out if the neighbor is drinking anything-"

"-then we can sneak a few pills into the drink-"

"-and have him drink it-"

"-which will cause him to go unconscious, allowing us to explore the house without having to worry about him." Jake finished. "Wow, you knew exactly what I wanted to do. Good job."

"We're in this together, aren't we? Now, we have an idea of what we'll do once we get inside the house, but I think we're getting ahead of ourselves. Before we can execute that plan, we need to figure out how to get inside the house first. We have to go through the fence gate to get inside."

"I'm aware of that. First off, we'll jump over the moat and see if he left the front gate unlocked. If not, we can decide what to do next."

"Okay, let's go."

They opened the front door and then closed it behind them as they stepped out onto the front porch. They headed down the path to the sidewalk, then began to cross the street. As they did, Jake kept an eye out for the neighbor, in case he was outside. Thankfully, as he and Jeffrey crossed the road, nobody appeared and ambushed them. Jake took this as a sign that the neighbor was busy inside his house, doing who-knew-what.

Halfway across the street, Jake looked both up and down the street, half-expecting a car to come driving down from either direction, but nothing. It amazed him just how empty the entire area was, ever since the other residents had stayed inside their homes and never dared to drive around town. He figured he could've sat down in the middle of the street for an entire hour and not a single car would ever pass by and risk hitting him.

But, of course, he did not; there were more pressing matters on his hands at the moment.

He and Jake reached the sidewalk at the other side of the street and finally came up to the neighbor's house...or they would have, if the moat hadn't been blocking their way to the fence gate. 'Blocking' was a broad statement, though: the moat was only deep enough to reach their knees, so there seemed to be no risk.

Still, Jake hesitated. The moat's water was murky and, though still a normal blue color, looked swampy. He didn't know what could happen if he went into it. So he turned to Jeffrey and asked. "I don't know...do we really have to do this?"

Jeffrey shrugged. "Unless you want to go back and watch tv. If you go, it's fine by me. However, if that happens, then I'll just have to do this by myself."

Jake chuckled. "Yeah, I get it. You'll need my help for this. Now or never, I guess." He faced the moat, cringed, and, without trying to think of how it would be, he stepped into the moat.

The water didn't feel THAT unpleasant, but once Jake began to wade through it, he could see why the neighbor had installed it. The water was difficult to travel through, and Jake was significantly slower wading through it then he would be running on land. If the neighbor ran after someone and that someone tried to wade through the moat, they would not be able to outrun the neighbor. Taking note of this for later, Jake made a promise to himself to try not to get chased by the neighbor through this moat.

Jeffrey splashed in behind Jake, and they went through the moat together. It was a very short distance across before they were able to climb out and face the gate. Jake grabbed the handle of the gate and tested it. Luckily for him, the neighbor had accidentally left the gate unlocked again, and it opened easily.

They both went through it, and finally, they were out on the front yard. Jake quietly closed the gate behind them so the neighbor wouldn't think anyone had come in if he saw it.

"Huh, looks like the neighbor forgot to lock the gate." Jeffrey assessed. "Lucky us."

"Let's hope that our luck doesn't run out." Jake replied. "I'd rather this were all too easy instead of all too hard."

They made their way up to the front porch and opened the front doors of the neighbor's house. Once again, luck was on their side; the front door had also been left unlocked.

"The front door's unlocked too?" Jeffrey stuttered, confused. "I knew we were starting to get lucky today, but this is getting kind of ridiculous."

"Either he forgot to lock this door, or he put too much confidence in the moat and fence." Jake wondered. "Either way, it looks like we'll be able to get inside."

They went through the front door, and now they were out onto the foyer of the neighbor's house. Jake could see the hall ahead, the doorway to the right, the tiny bird in the cage on the table put in the corner, and the closet to their immediate right.

"Alright, let's hope we get lucky a third time and the neighbor will already be asleep." Jake said. "That way we can explore the house without him coming after us." However, it was at this point that their insanely fortunate stroke of luck finally ran out. They could hear loud footsteps coming from the hallway ahead. "Quick! Hide!" Jake whispered, and both of them looked around, spotted the closet, and dived into it, closing themselves inside. Then they went still.

Through the small crack in the doors of the closet, Jake could see the neighbor come into the foyer. He seemed to be in a half-pleasant mood today. It wasn't much, since Jake still sensed an air of grumpiness coming from the neighbor, but it was also combined with an air of light content. He headed over to the birdcage, where the tiny bird was sitting inside.

"Hello again, Charlotte. Good to see you behaving yourself." The neighbor grunted, half-smiling. The little bird tweeted obediently, yet Jake could see that it did look a little downtrodden and sad. And apparently, the bird was a girl? Interesting. "Good idea on my part to stick you in this cage. No escape attempts from you. I should have stuck Jo-Jo in a cage when I first got him. He's been a lot of trouble. I've searched the houses up and down, and I still haven't found him. That cat is going to pay when I finally find him. If I'm lucky, he might have crawled into the walls and gotten stuck, and now he's starving to death. Then he'll have no choice but to come back to me."

"Now, you stay in that cage like a good bird. I have certain...things...to attend to. If you even try to escape the cage, I'll have a problem with it. Got it, Charlotte?" The bird let out a low tweet. "Good, you understand. Let's keep it that way."

He stomped over to the front door, looked out for a moment, then turned away and stomped off through the doorway to the living room.

"Phew, that was close." Jake breathed as he and Jeffrey exited the closet. "Now, let's follow him. See what he's doing."

They went into the living room. The neighbor had stomped off into the kitchen, so they were not caught. As they snuck across the living room, Jake turned to Jeffrey.

"Is Jo-Jo safe at home, by the way?" Jake asked.

"Yeah, I checked on him before we left." Jeffrey answered, giving a small smile. "He's taking a nap on your bed. I think he'll be fine."

"Great, thanks."

They crept over to the doorway to the kitchen and peeked around it. The neighbor was in this room, standing over the stove and handling a frying pan with lots of sizzling bacon on it. A cup of what looked to be tea had already been placed on the table nearby the stove, as well as a plate of fried eggs. Jake had always wondered about this table; it had four chairs at it, implying four different people sat at the table every day, but the neighbor was the only one who lived here, and he certainly never invited guests over. Jake wondered why he would even bother adding the extra chairs if he had no good reason to.

The bacon had apparently already been finished, because the neighbor turned the heat off of the stove and served the bacon onto a plate, which he put onto the table. He reached into a cabinet by the kitchen area over by the window and took out two shakers, one of salt and one of pepper, and walked back over to the table. He set the shakers next to the egg plate.

And, right over by the very same kitchen area that was by the window, there was a beep and a noise of something popping out; the neighbor's toaster had finished making the toast, and it had came out. The neighbor grabbed the toast, set it onto another plate, and put that on the table. He also took a butter dish with a fresh stick of butter sitting on, which had been sitting on the kitchen counter, and put it on the table next to the toast plate.

Then he stood there, looking over his work for a moment, and seemingly admiring it, before moving again. He made to sit down at the table, but suddenly he paused, then stood back up, walked over to the hallway near the kitchen, and disappeared. Jake heard a door slam, and he knew there were only two doors over there: the closet and the bathroom. The neighbor obviously didn't go into the closet, according to what Jake knew, and if he had just opened and closed it, he would have been back by now.

"Alright, he's busy. Let's get in here." Jake said, and he and Jeffrey walked over to the table. The entire breakfast setup was there, as well as the cup of tea. All of it was set by only one of the chairs. Jake could smell the bacon; it smelled delicious. His mouth was already starting to water, but he knew he couldn't just eat the bacon, there were bigger fish to fry.

"I've got the pills. Time to put them in." Jeffrey confirmed, reaching into his jacket and taking out the pill container. He unscrewed the cap, tipped the bottle, dumped three pills into his hand, then put them all into the tea. Interestingly, as soon as the pills made contact with the tea, they disintegrated into the tea itself. Jake couldn't help but admit this was clever; if somebody gave somebody else a drink with the pills in it, they would not know unless they had directly seen the pills get put in. The tea looked the same as it did before, too, almost making it seem like the pills had never been put in at all.

Both Jake and Jeffrey grinned. The first stage of their plan was complete. Now the neighbor just had to drink the tea, and the pills would do their work.

But, at that very moment, Jake could hear the flush of the toilet in the bathroom and the sound of a sink turning on. The neighbor had almost finished up in there.

"He's almost about to exit the bathroom. Quick, we need to hide again!" Jake muttered, and Jeffrey nodded in agreement. They ran back into the living room and closed themselves into the closet inside the room, the one right next to the tv. Seconds later, the sink turned off and they heard a door open, then the neighbor's footsteps sounded. Then there was a creak as he sat down, sounds of clanking silverware, and soft chewing. The neighbor had begun to eat. After a few minutes, there was a pause, and then they heard a light slurp, indicating that the neighbor had drank the tea.

Then another creak as the neighbor sat up, light clanking as the silverware seemed to be placed in the sink in the kitchen, and then the neighbor's footsteps got louder as he came into the living room. Jake could see him going around through the tiny crack in the closet doors. Without a word, the neighbor sat down on his armchair, grabbed the remote, and turned on the tv.

Brief static for a moment. There were voices coming from the tv now, and they were chatting thoroughly about something Jake could not make out from the sound inside the closet. It seemed to be the same talk show the neighbor had listened to the last time Jake had listened to him watch tv.

Everything was silent excepting the buzzing of the tv for a few moments. Then, when Jake was finally about to take a sigh of relief...Jeffrey sneezed.

"Crap, I didn't mean to do that!" Jake could hear Jeffrey mutter, along with a few other curse words.

The tv abruptly turned off, and the neighbor got to his feet, an angry expression once again apparent on his face. "Hey! I heard that! Where did that come from?! Who's here?!"

The neighbor began to search the room. He looked up and down his shelving unit, peered behind the tv and out the window, and quickly leaned through the doorways to the foyer and kitchen to check if anyone was there.

Jake stopped watching the neighbor for a moment and took a breath in. Hopefully, the neighbor wouldn't find them. Maybe he would miss them, and they could escape, and maybe for once, they wouldn't have to be knocked out.

Then Jake realized that all noises outside the closet had stopped. Had the neighbor left the room or something? He usually made a lot of noise, but since everything had gone silent, Jake didn't know what to think. Maybe he decided to leave and look elsewhere, and they could make a quick escape and-

-and then the closet doors flew open with a crash, and Jake and Jeffrey jumped, hitting both of their heads on the ceiling of the closet (which happened to be a tight space). Rubbing his head and wincing in pain, Jake looked forward and gaped; the neighbor was standing there.

"Ah-HA!" He roared. "I knew something was in here! So, you two brats are back again, huh?! I'll admit, your persistence is actually starting to annoy me! But now I've got you right where I want you."

"We...uh...we'll just be on our way." Jake muttered, getting to his feet. Jeffrey did the same.

"Oh, I don't think so. In fact, you're coming with me. I'm going to have to deal with you two very harshly for this-"

"RUN!" Without a second to waste, Jake charged forward and shoulder-bashed the neighbor. It managed to work, somehow; the blow had not hurt the neighbor or caused any damage, but it did throw him off. The neighbor stumbled backwards, caught off-guard by this sudden move, and this moment of distraction was all Jake and Jeffrey needed.

They ran past the neighbor, heading across the living room and through the doorway into the foyer.

"Not this time! Get back here!" The neighbor yelled angrily, having regained his focus in seconds. Jake heard his fast footsteps and knew he was after them. Now they were in trouble.

They wrenched open the front door and kept going, going across the front lawn and opening the gate. They tried to jump over the moat, but they landed in it anyway. Slightly annoyed by this, Jake waded through the water as fast as he was able to go. Jeffrey did the same, and he reached the other side first, climbing out. He reached out for Jake. Jake grabbed Jeffrey's hand, allowing him to pull Jake out of the moat.

The neighbor was right behind them, already looking through the gate door. "You may have gotten away before, but not this time!" He then made to leap over the moat himself.

However, he then made a mistake: he acted too quickly. His foot slipped as he began to jump, and he yelled out as he landed face-first into the water. Looking angry, he was already getting to his feet. However, Jake noticed that it was not the quick, rapid motion the neighbor usually made, but slower, more sluggish and tired. The neighbor's angry expression was fading off of his face, and he looked robbed of energy.

The neighbor, who seemed determined not to give up, started to wade across the moat. He got slower and slower and slower the closer he got, and by the time he finally managed to climb out, he looked worn. Then, his energy disappeared. He collapsed onto the grass, landing with an uncomfortable thump onto the ground, and then he was still.

A solid twenty seconds of complete and utter silence followed this sudden event; Jake and Jeffrey stood there, looking down at the neighbor, completely frozen and memorized at what had just happened.

Finally, Jake found himself again, and managed to speak: "Did...did we just...kill him? Is he...dead?"

"I...don't know." Jeffrey mumbled. At that moment, he sounded mortified. "We should see." He walked over to the neighbor and tapped his body with his foot. The neighbor did not jump up, or shudder, or move in any way. He was completely still, unmoving. "He's...not moving."

"So he's...dead. You know, I thought the neighbor dying would be the best thing in the world at first, but...I don't know whether to feel happy or disgusted."

"Me neither. All this time, I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. I was hoping it would never come to outright murder. But now we've done it."

"Yeah...we did. Well, then...since he's dead, I think...we should go look through the house for any more stuff."

"...right, we should. Let's go, then."

Jake had never expected Jeffrey to look so dejected over something like this. He had always thought the neighbor possibly being killed would be a happy and joyous occasion, but somehow it felt...wrong. And at the same time, it felt too easy. The man who had been so skillful, so evasive, had died from a minor slip and fall. Who would have thought?

He decided to put off the lamenting for a little bit and focus on checking the house. He and Jeffrey crossed the moat again, went through the gate, and re-entered the house to start a search.

They split up to search for anything they could find. It was a only a few minutes before Jake, as he looked around inside the closet in the living room, noticed that there was a box tucked off to the side. He opened it up and found a shovel with a metal blade sitting on it.

As soon as he laid eyes on it, Jake knew exactly what he would have to use it for. He knew something like this might happen, but still, it didn't comfort him in the slightest bit.

He met up with Jeffrey again, and they headed back outside, across the moat, and over to the neighbor's body.

"So...we're going to have to do this, huh?" Jeffrey muttered.

"Yeah. I found this shovel inside his house." Jake said, waving the shovel. "And I think I know how we're going to have to use it."

"Me too."

"I wish I didn't have to do this, though."

"Me neither."

"We'll have to bury him."

"Yeah. Where, though?"

"...behind his house. That seems fitting."

"Alright. Let's take him over there, then."

* * *

An entire half-hour passed as Jake and Jeffrey had to lift the neighbor's body all the way to the backyard, and then dig the hole that he would be put into. It was a lot of hard work, but they got it done.

Jake had also found, conveniently, a wooden coffin lying around in the backyard and decided to use it. He looked down into the hole he had dug. He could see the coffin down into it, closed up, with the neighbor secured inside.

"Finally, we're nearly done." Jake sighed. "He's down in the hole, inside a coffin, as planned. All that's left to do is fill the hole back up." Jake lifted the shovel up to a nearby dirt pile, which was made up of the dirt they had dug up to dig the hole, and prepared to shovel the dirt back inside.

"Wait!" Jeffrey called out. "Shouldn't we...say a few words? I guess?"

"I'm not really sure I want to do that. I figured we could do this job quickly and get back on with life. Besides, I don't know this guy too well and he's knocked me out quite a few times."

"I know, but...it feels right to say something to his body before we bury him. I just feel like we should."

"Fine, fine." Jake cleared his throat. "Neighbor...you're not a very good person, but I have to say...sorry it had to be this way. We were hoping you'd be behind bars, not behind dirt. But I guess things have to be this way." He glared down at the coffin. "Maybe in the afterlife, you can make better choices than you did in life. And maybe NOT capture people!"

"Now for me." Jeffrey started. "Neighbor...I have to admit, I'm still mad at you for everything you've done. But...if I had the choice, you wouldn't have just died. But I hope you at least have some remorse for all you've done to this poor town." Jeffrey paused. "That's all."

Without any more words, Jake began to shovel dirt back into the hole. This time, Jeffrey made no move to stop him. However, Jake could sense that Jeffrey still felt sort of awful about it.

When the hole was completely filled up, Jake put down the shovel and leaned over the dirt. There was no gravestone to use here, so he would have to get creative. Using his fingers, he drew the word 'Neighbor' into the center of the dirt. It wasn't much, but frankly, he didn't care enough about this guy to do anything fancy.

And then it was done. Jake yawned, turned to Jeffrey, and said. "Let's go home. I'm tired from all of this."

"Me either." Jeffrey agreed. "We can come back tomorrow and finally find the missing people. I know it sounds wrong, but for some reason, I think they can wait one day."

They both nodded in sync, and, staying silent, they departed from the backyard and began to trek home.

* * *

Some time later, they found themselves sitting together and watching tv, a comedy movie of some kind blaring on the screen. Jake wanted to pay attention to it, but his mind was wandering elsewhere, and it was obvious enough where.

Jeffrey was sitting there silently, Jo-Jo curled up in his lap. The cat was already asleep. Jake thought this was good; Jo-Jo didn't need to be here for how they both felt right now.

"Hey, Jake?" Jeffrey spoke up.

"Yeah, Jeffrey?"

"That whole 'neighbor dying' thing...it doesn't feel right somehow..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well...I feel like we stooped down to his level by doing it. Like we became the bad guy in that scenario." Jeffrey sighed and put a hand up to his forehead. "What am I going to tell the other residents? Some of them will celebrate, but most will think I went too far..."

"Hey, I got your back. If they have a problem with you, I'll defend you. Neither of us knew it was going to happen, you know. It just...happened."

"Yeah."

More silence.

"You know, it feels wrong in another way too." Jeffrey said. "This just...doesn't feel right. That was easy. Too easy. I always thought going after the neighbor would be the biggest challenge of my entire life, but...that just happened without us even doing much."

"It did feel strange, yeah. But...what happens, happens. We have to move forward from this and choose the correct path onward. We can't focus on this one thing for the rest of our lives."

"...you're right, Jake. I'll try not to let this bug me."

They once again stopped talking. Jake could feel the grasp of tiredness coming over him as he tried to watch the movie, and he felt like he needed to sleep some of this off.

"I'm going to go take a nap." Jake muttered, standing up. "You can stay here and keep watching the movie."

"That's fine." Jeffrey muttered back, nodding slightly. "Go ahead and rest. I don't feel like going home at the moment."

"Works for me. You have fun."

Jake left the living room, heading for his bedroom and his warm and cozy bed, hoping his own dreams would allow him to forget that any of today's events ever happened.

* * *

He woke up again a few hours later. He looked over at the clock he had recently bought, that was now hanging on the wall of his mostly-empty bedroom. It was a few hours into the afternoon.

Jake sat up, then stood up off of his bed and left the bedroom. He entered the foyer and then the living room. Jeffrey was looking out the front window of the room, gazing at the neighbor's house, but mostly seeming to stare off into space.

"Hey." Jake greeted.

"Hey." Jeffrey repeated back. "Have a nice rest?"

"I guess so. I want to talk to you, Jeffrey, about something that occurred to me while I was sleeping."

"What's that?"

"Did we check the neighbor's body for anything he might be holding before we buried him?"

Jeffrey gasped, then cursed out loud. "Damn! I knew I was forgetting something!"

"Yeah, I know. He has that key we need with him, right?"

"The keycard. Didn't you see that keycard slot by the basement door?"

"I did."

"Well, we need the keycard for that. We can't open the basement without it."

Jake sighed. "Meaning?"

"Meaning that we'll have to dig up the body, take the keycard, and bury it back up again."

Jake groaned loudly; it had already been a time-consuming process to bury the neighbor the first time, so having to repeat it wasn't something he knew he would enjoy. "Man, that sucks." He said. "But I guess it's necessary. After all, the residents could be down in the basement, starving, right about now."

"Yeah, we'll-AAAH!"

Unexpectedly, Jeffrey jumped back from the window, looking shocked.

"What?! What is it?!" Jake asked, worried.

"That!" Jeffrey pointed out the window. Jake looked over to see what exactly Jeffrey was losing it about...and then Jake lost it too.

The front door of the neighbor's house had opened, and the neighbor was there. He came out his front door and began to walk across his front porch. He was pacing, back and forth, his eyes to the floor and his hands folded behind his back.

"Wait...w-what?" Jake stuttered, trying to process that. "Jeffrey...do you see that too?"

Jeffrey cracked a grin that was half-comical, half-anxious. "Well, either he has a twin brother that looks and dresses exactly like him...or the neighbor is still alive."

"Yeah, uh, is it wrong to say that I think the latter is probably the correct answer?"

"No. No, you aren't."

And then they both screamed.

"I thought he was dead! I thought we buried him!" Jake exclaimed, in total disbelief. "How is he still out there?"

"I should have known this would happen!" Jeffrey grumbled. "He's too capable, of course he wouldn't just die like that!"

"He was probably wondering why he was buried underground, in a wooden coffin."

"Definitely. But how did he even dig himself out? He was sealed inside that coffin."

"That's...a very, very, very good question. And, I have no idea how."

Then, from across the street (thanks to them leaving the window open a crack), they heard the neighbor talking.

"Why in the hell was I buried below ground?" He wondered to himself. "Of all the things to happen in this stupid little town...thank god I can dig dirt like I was born for it. I sure as hell refuse to be buried alive like that."

"Huh, so that's why." Jake pointed out. "That also explains how he managed to build a moat. Man, if he weren't such a tyrannical jerk, I'd probably ask him to upgrade my house."

"Maybe try getting some furniture first. This house is mostly devoid of it." Jeffrey reasoned, shrugging.

"Okay, that's reasonable. So...I guess we didn't kill him off like we thought we did?"

"I...I guess not. I'm not sure whether I should be relieved that we didn't actually murder anyone...or mad that we still have to deal with him."

"Well, then. Hey, that reminds me...how many of those pills do you have left?"

"Zero." Jeffrey took the bottle out of his jacket, and Jake could clearly see that it was empty. Jeffrey looked sheepish. "The one I grabbed only had three in it, so we went through it pretty quickly. And I didn't notice until it was too late. Sorry."

"Oh. Then...I suppose we at least gave the neighbor a good day's sleep. If that even counts for something at all."

"I don't think it does. Not to be rude, but I don't think it does."

"No sweat. So...we're going to have to come up with another plan for what to do against the neighbor."

"Great idea. I don't think we should go after him today; we went once, and as far as I'm concerned, once is enough. But we do have a lot of daylight left. Want to brainstorm some possible plans?"

"I'd like that! I was thinking we could do something with rabbits, since the neighbor hates them. So-"

And then they began to discuss their next move. Jake felt perplexed, completely weirded out that today's events had happened exactly as they had, and he was almost convinced that it was some crazy dream he had after a night of too much soda from the market. But he knew it had actually took place as it did.

But, now that the neighbor was indeed alive and well (which was no cause for celebration of any kind), Jake decided it was time to get back to the drawing board and hatch yet another plan. He didn't know how long it would all take, or how much time he'd have to waste, but it was worth a shot.

So he and Jeffrey sat down on the couch and got to work, starting a lengthy conversation as they began to put their minds into the thinking process...


End file.
